The reindustrialization of the biomedical sector has been the focus of debate at the 2021 UnConference, from an inclusive approach where both large corporations, and SMEs and start-ups have played a leading role. CataloniaBio & HealthTech has brought together a hundred CEOs, executives, and entrepreneurs from pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology and digital health entities and companies to address one of the issues that the pandemic has also brought back to the table.
The UnConference has become the main event of 2021 for CataloniaBio & HealthTech, after Covid-19 disrupted the other main events. It hosted the 2021 BioSuccess Award, which was awarded to the biotech ONA Therapeutics. The conference took place at Esade Creapolis, in Sant Cugat del Vallès.
The main session reviewed the challenges of the new industrialization and the steps to be taken from the laboratory to the factory. Assessment of the current situation and the experiences and particular cases were presented by Jordi Cabrafiga, Secretary General, Ministry of Economy at Generalitat de Catalunya; Jordi Vallès, SVP Centre of Excellence Aesculap, BBraun Group; and Carles Fàbrega, Managing Director of the Human Health Division HIPRA. The round table was moderated by Xavier Marcet.
“The ecosystem needs to be round, and all points need to be connected. What’s more, the people involved in the innovation must trust each other and collaborate, offering lateral thinking in order to help bring innovation to the health system." From these three ideas, César Velasco (director of innovation at Novartis), moderator of the session on Challenges and solutions of hospital purchasing, summarizes the conclusions of the reflections on how business innovation will arrive at hospitals. He insisted on collaboration, "we must base innovation on the needs of the people and not just on solutions, codesigning these solutions, and measuring the impact the innovation has on society."
Montse Vendrell (Partner of Alta Life Sciences) presented the conclusions of the session focused on business investment to improve competitiveness. One of the key words is commitment: investing in structural strategies to meet long-term goals as a demonstration of commitment to innovation. Another key point is the commitment to measure the outcomes on society, "the market values and understands it, so we need to learn to communicate our outcome”. Lastly, a definition of the current situation, which is moving on from the delocalization phase to the reintegration of the chain at local level, “we must value the assets that we have and invest in them.”
Another focus of the debate was supply chains. The moderator of the session, Jaume Amat (CEO of Specipig), highlighted the participants’ agreement on the idea that “we have to talk about partners rather than suppliers. We work in a highly regulated system with projects that take long to develop, so it is better for the suppliers to be part of the process.” Innovation can also come from the suppliers' network; this is why we must seek this added value in the life cycle of the product. Looking forward, one of the conclusions of the session is the need to give more visibility to the network of providers for better integration to the production chains.
What Is an UnConference?
UnConference is a day of debates and discussions on the future of healthcare solutions promoted by CataloniaBioHT since 2018. The event aims to raise awareness of, and offer perspectives and insight into the sector’s needs and opportunities, as well as the best way to tackle them.
Following the unconference methodology, this event doesn’t include presentations and conferences, but rather various debate spaces where significant figures from science, business, patients or society are invited to propose topics for joint reflection. Therefore, the debates are based on the opinions and knowledge of the participants (entrepreneurs, CEOs, CSOs and executives at pharmaceutical, biomedical and digital health companies).
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