Asebio 2024: Driving Biotechnology as a Pillar of Spain and Europe’s Strategic Future

Europe has established its independence by designating biotechnology as a strategic technology. In 2024, Europe introduced a significant legislative effort , including new strategies for life sciences, the bioeconomy, and startups. New regulations include the pharmaceutical legislative package, the Critical Medicines Act, regulations for new genomic techniques, the European Health Data Area, and the new Biotechnology Act. In Spain, Asebio highlghts alignment with EU goals.

In Spain, it was also a busy year for new strategic and legislative initiatives: the pharmaceutical industry strategy was published, and progress was made in drafting the royal decrees on health technology assessment and drug financing and pricing. Furthermore, we will also see the new law on medicines and medical devices and the law on industry and strategic autonomy. All of this regulation will have an impact on the biotechnology industry and will define the playing field for the sector for the next generation.

Spain’s biotech sector expands with strong legislative support, contributing to GDP, jobs, and innovation—Asebio highlights alignment with EU goals for health, sustainability, and industrial sovereignty

With this new regulatory environment, the Asebio 2024 report, presented last week, shows that biotechnology companies continued to grow, generating more than €13 billion in revenue, 1.1% of GDP. The biotechnology industry contributes €5.229 billion to the welfare state, 0.4% of GDP. Furthermore, they generate more than 131,000 jobs, 0.67% of total employment in our country.

In this regard, Ion Arocena, CEO of Asebio, commented in the report that these indicators not only reflect the tangible impact of biotechnology on the welfare economy and the creation of quality jobs, but also confirm that biotechnology is a key industry for Europe’s future, a fundamental pillar for ensuring its strategic autonomy, promoting people’s health, and protecting the environment.

“At Asebio, we are promoting our joint work with the CDTI (Spanish Institute of Technology and Innovation), with the goal of bringing European priorities to Spain and strengthening its role as a key player in promoting the biotechnology sector,” he said.

Arocena also explained that in 2024, the Draghi Report called for strengthening Europe’s competitiveness by boosting R&D, identified the pharmaceutical sector as one of the 10 key sectors for Europe, and set a general objective of maintaining and expanding the European Union’s capacity for R&D development, with special attention to biological products, orphan products, and advanced therapy medicines.

Asebio stated that they share the same vision as the Draghi report, which warned that public investment in R&D in the EU is lower and fragmented, compared to countries such as the United States and the growing presence of China , ensuring that we have a slow regulatory framework for medicines, coupled with the complex emergence of a European Health Data Area.

In July 2024, the European Commission included the commitment to enact the new European Biotechnology Law ( Biotech Act) in its 2024-2029 mandate program. This future regulation aims to increase the size and competitiveness of the EU biotechnology sector while maintaining high safety standards .

Rocío Arroyo, president of Asebio, explained in the report that “this is a unique opportunity for biotechnology to contribute structurally to the main challenges of the European project.”

For this reason, he argued that Spain is in a favorable position to make biotechnology one of the vectors of its leadership in innovation and industrial sovereignty. “To accelerate our growth, it is necessary to strengthen the mechanisms that connect scientific talent with industry, consolidate financial instruments tailored to the needs of our companies, and continue working on regulatory frameworks that keep pace with innovation. Asebio connects with the different stakeholders in the ecosystem and facilitates better understanding between academia, industry, and government. The convergence between European strategy and national capabilities represents a unique opportunity that we must seize.”

The Asebio Report is the leading publication for the biotechnology sector, prepared by the Spanish Association of Biocompanies

The report’s mission is to analyze all the areas that make up the current landscape of biotechnology development in our country and its evolution.

Therefore, the Asebio 2024 Report specifies that biotech companies grew by 4.1% and now represent more than 1,000 companies, specifically 1,014. Companies with secondary focus increased slightly by 1.1% to 311 companies, and companies using biotechnology as a production tool decreased to 2,887 companies.

Thus, human health remains the main area of ​​activity for biotech companies , accounting for 58% of companies. This is followed by companies dedicated to food with 27%, agriculture and forestry with 17%, animal health and agriculture with 15%, the environment with 12%, and, in last place, industry with 10%.

In absolute terms, Catalonia, Madrid, and Andalusia continue to account for more than half of biotech companies and 83% of total revenue. During 2023, the largest growth in business demographics was recorded in Murcia, Navarre, Aragon, and the Canary Islands, with growth in the number of companies exceeding 15%.

By number of companies, Catalonia maintains its lead with the largest number of biotech companies , accounting for 24.56% of the total. It is followed by the Community of Madrid with 17.95%, Andalusia with 12.52%, the Basque Country with 9.57%, and the Valencian Community with 8.78%.

In terms of total turnover, Catalonia takes first place with 43.90%, followed by the Community of Madrid with 34.95%.

Asebio monitored the creation of new companies focused on biotechnology. Last year, 67 new biotech companies were identified. Of these companies, 19 were created in Catalonia, 12 in Andalusia, seven in the Basque Country, five in Madrid, five in Galicia , four in Asturias , four in Valencia , and three in Extremadura. Additionally, Castile and León and Murcia have two new companies, and one new company was identified each in Castile-La Mancha, Cantabria, and Navarre.

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(Featured image by ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND via Unsplash)

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First published in diariofarma. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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