AstraZeneca and WIVI Vision have been awarded with the Bioèxit Award during the celebration of La Nit, the annual reference meeting of the biomedicine and health sector in Catalonia, organised by CataloniaBio & HealthTech. With this event, the association wanted to recognise the importance for the sector and the city of AstraZeneca's decision to locate its global hub in Barcelona, as well as to highlight the business milestones achieved by WIVI Vision, also in a special year for CataloniaBio & HealthTech, which is reaching its majority.
The networking dinner, held at the AXA Auditorium in Barcelona, was attended by more than 300 people, including Catalan and Spanish government officials, entrepreneurs, executives, researchers, members of the organising organisation and leading figures from the sector. Mariona Serra, president of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, gave the opening speech of the event highlighting that the association and its members "work every day to lead the development and implementation of major advances in health technology and therapies, and thus achieve a competitive country and advanced health".
The meeting also included speeches by Jordi García, director general of Industrial Strategy and the PIME, Ministry of Industry; Marta Trapero, lecturer at the UdL, UIC and UPF; Joan Puig, first vice-president of the organising organisation; and Manel Balcells, Catalan Minister of Health, who closed the event before awarding the Bioèxit Prize to Marta Moreno, director of Corporate Affairs and Market Access at AstraZeneca, and Eva García Ramos, CEO and co-founder of WIVI Vision.
AstraZeneca made a major commitment to Barcelona just over a year ago, when it opened its scientific innovation centre to accelerate the arrival of next-generation treatments in the five therapeutic areas in which it works: oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular, renal and metabolism, respiratory and immunology, and vaccines and immunotherapies. "This award recognises that the AstraZeneca Global Hub in Barcelona is much more than a research and development centre. It is a symbol of our commitment to innovation, collaboration and the advancement of science for the benefit of humanity. All this has been possible thanks to public-private collaboration, the fundamental pillar of our success, with the invaluable support of the Spanish government, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council and the local ecosystem of health and life sciences," said Marta Moreno in accepting the award. The company plans to invest 800 million euros by 2027 to turn the Barcelona hub into one of Europe's largest centres of excellence and clinical innovation.
The other star of the evening was WIVI Vision. Founded by Eva García Ramos and Juan Carlos Ondategui, the company has developed a system that combines artificial intelligence and big data to provide a complete visual cognitive assessment and training of visual dysfunctions through 3D video games. "It is a great honour for us to receive this award from CataloniaBio & HealthTech. Now we have achieved the first results and we are beginning to fulfil our goal of improving people's quality of life through vision", said Eva García Ramos. With a presence in 70 visual health centres in Spain and major agreements with specialised firms such as NOG and General Óptica, WIVI Vision began its internationalisation last year, entering the US market through an agreement with the local partner Vision Rehab Technologies Inc (VRTI).
CataloniaBio was created in March 2006 with the aim of bringing together Catalan companies in the field of biotechnology and health sciences under a single umbrella. The merger with the HealthTech cluster in 2018 boosted the platform to over 225 members. CataloniaBio & HealthTech has played a key role in positioning Barcelona and Catalonia as the second best European location for investment in biotechnology and health, and the Bioèxit Award it grants, which this year has reached its tenth edition, has recognised the companies Oryzon Genomics, MInoryx Therapeutics, Palobiofarma, Mosaic Biomedicals, STAT-Diagnostica, Anaconda Biomed, MInd The Byte, Ysios Capital, Kymos, ONA Therapeutics, IMIDomics, Avient and SpliceBio.
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