The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the startup Wivi Vision have been awarded the Bioèxit prize by the CataloniaBio & HealthTech association. The entity has chosen to distinguish them for the relevance of AstraZeneca's decision to locate its global hub in Barcelona, and for Wivi Vision's activity focused on visual dysfunctions.
Both companies have been awarded within the framework of the annual meeting La Nit de CataloniaBio & HealthTech, which was attended by some 300 attendees. The event, conceived as a dinner-networking at the Auditori Axa, coincided with the 18th anniversary of the organizing entity, and with the tenth edition of the award. Among the attendees were representatives of the Government and the Generalitat, as well as entrepreneurs, executives, researchers, partners of the entity and prominent personalities from the sector.
The event served to praise the work of a sector that, encompassed in an entity that brings together 225 companies, works "day by day to lead the development and implementation of major advances in health technology and therapies," defended the president of CataloniaBio & HealthTech, Mariona Serra. All to advance towards "cutting-edge healthcare," she said at the event, which was also attended by the Minister of Health, Manel Balsells, and the Director General of Industrial Strategy and SMEs of the Ministry of Industry, Jordi García, among others.
AstraZeneca's award, collected by the Director of Corporate Affairs and Market Access, Marta Moreno, praised the opening of its hub in the Catalan capital. Its scientific innovation center aims to accelerate the arrival of a new generation of medicines in various areas, including oncology and rare diseases. The company plans to make an investment of 800 million until 2027 to turn this hub into one of the largest clinical innovation centers in Europe. Given these growth prospects, the hub will move to the renovated Edfici Estel in 2025, when it expects to reach 1,000 professionals.
"This award recognizes that the AstraZeneca Global Hub in Barcelona is much more than a research and development center; it is a symbol of our commitment to innovation, collaboration, and the advancement of science for the benefit of humanity," defended Moreno, who pointed to public-private collaboration as one of the fundamental pillars of the pharmaceutical company's progress.
For her part, the CEO and co-founder of Wivi Vision, Eva García Ramos, has collected the recognition for her company, which she co-founded in 2016 with Juan Carlos Ondategui. The startup uses artificial intelligence and big data to provide a complete visual cognitive evaluation and for the training of visual dysfunctions through 3D video games. With a presence in 70 visual health centers nationwide and with agreements with large specialized firms, the startup began its internationalization last year, entering the United States market.
The company is "beginning to fulfill the purpose of improving people's quality of life through vision," as highlighted by its co-founder. García Ramos assured The New Barcelona Post that this award will contribute to giving visibility to the company and to the importance of visual health, also within the health and biotechnology ecosystem of Catalonia, where companies in the healthtech sector are the most numerous within the set of Catalan startups.