"Before we suffered because we needed to use the labs and now because we are full"

Jordi Carrera and Rafael Bru founded STAT-Dx in 2010, a small startup focused on the diagnosis of infectious diseases. They settled in a newly built Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB), affected by an economic crisis that did not help fill it. At that time, Carrera and Bru did not imagine that their product would be so successful that a multinational like Qiagen would end up buying it. Much less that the German group would later bet on locating a global R&D center in their city. Piloted today by Àlex Boada, the hub plans to concentrate 400 workers by 2027.

The evolution of this startup is an example of how the life sciences sector has skyrocketed, after overcoming the economic slowdown and being boosted by the pandemic. It also exemplifies the growth of the PCB, with its director, Maria Terrades, captaining an ambitious expansion process to respond to a demand that does not stop growing. The trajectory of STAT-Dx has become an example to follow for other companies, inside and outside the PCB.

--- From a startup with two employees to being part of Qiagen, a German multinational that annually invoices more than 2,000 million euros. How have you experienced this process?

--- Àlex Boada: Even we are surprised by our own trajectory. Just fifteen years ago the startup was starting to walk and now we are 240 employees. In addition, at the beginning, we had no references or similar companies, but the founders believed in the product and bet on this sector. With few resources, a powerpoint and a small laboratory they founded STAT-Dx, with the purpose of creating a PCR that in an hour would analyze many infectious diseases at once, from respiratory to gastrointestinal.

--- To develop this product, they decided to settle in the Parc Científic de Barcelona. What advantages did it offer you?

--- A.B.: When you are a startup, you must focus on bringing the product to market. But, of course, to operate, companies need many services, from security, canteen, cleaning, insurance or pest control... A large number of services that the PCB already covered, as well as the facilities and technical equipment. Therefore, it allowed us to invest all efforts in hiring people and developing the product.

--- Maria Terrades: This is precisely the philosophy that the PCB pursued when the University of Barcelona (UB) created it. The objective was to concentrate research and companies in the same space, to help them grow. With this purpose, we sought strategic partners to create incubators and accelerators, the first in 2002 with CIDEM, the Centre for Innovation and Business Development of the Generalitat. The second arrived in 2007 with Banco Santander, which is where STAT-Dx entered, after passing through Barcelona Activa.

--- But now the PCB does not have any active incubator.

--- M. T.: At the end of 2024, the third one, the BCN Health Booster, ended, hand in hand with the Barcelona City Council, of which 11 companies have been part, raising more than 107 million euros. We are working on the idea of creating another one and we already have entities interested in subsidizing this acceleration. So far, we have not been able to open a new one, even though the previous ones have worked very well, due to a logistical issue, and that is that we do not have a single square meter available to host new companies. But we are already talking with entities so that they can not only financially fund the acceleration but also have their own spaces for these startups to set up, because at the PCB we do not have capacity.

--- A. B.: We entered the PCB at a time when there was still a lot of space available, I remember going to the warehouse, which we had at the very end, and not running into anyone, seeing empty rooms and laboratories... And now there is a constant effervescence and people from one side to the other all the time.

--- A completely different scenario.

--- M. T.: At the beginning, we worried about filling the spaces we had at the PCB and, now, because we have them all full and we have to play Tetris to fit all the companies. The PCB required an initial investment of 150 million euros, of which 30 million euros were subsidies and 120 million euros, debt. Then, we suffered economically to recover this debt, but we have reached a point where the PCB is self-sustainable and, from the rents and services we charge the installed entities, we can recover the investment. We can proudly say that, now, we are more than 3,500 people working from about 120 entities, of which 100 are companies, 10 research centers and 10 non-profit institutions like Biocat.

--- STAT-Dx, later Qiagen, has also grown as the PCB did.

--- A. B.: It has been a very organic growth. The sector, STAT-Dx and the PCB have grown in parallel and practically hand in hand. We started with a small laboratory and gradually concentrated more and more spaces, and now we have 3,800 square meters.

--- And so, as you occupied more space, the company also grew. In 2018, the product was launched on the market and the German multinational Qiagen bought the startup for 154 million euros. At that time, did you experience some instability in case the company had to move out of Barcelona?

--- A. B.: At first, it did generate doubts for us, because it meant entering a very large, foreign company and initially we didn't even know if we could stay and work here. But we decided not to stand idly by. We were clear that we wanted to stay here, in Barcelona, within the PCB, we knew that the roots we had were solid enough. When the Germans saw the talent, innovation and infrastructure we had in the Catalan capital, they were finally convinced.

"From Barcelona we can compete face to face with countries like Germany or France, in terms of innovation, talent, infrastructure and even production"

--- A. B.: Barcelona has very competitive salaries, not only compared to Germany, but even with Poland. But in addition to salaries, we also have highly qualified talent, universities, pioneering hospitals, and a very powerful business ecosystem, with consolidated companies and innovative startups. From Barcelona, we can compete head-to-head with countries like Germany or France, in terms of innovation, talent, infrastructure, and even production.

--- M. T.: When the PCB was born, Barcelona was very strong in research, but it was difficult for it to transfer to companies. Now, however, there is a great proliferation and diversity of companies. The PCB is proof of this, with companies working on products as varied as protein modification or the creation of medical devices, from the largest like Hipra or Ordesa, to spin-offs and startups.

--- How has the health sector evolved in recent years?

--- A. B.: When STAT-Dx started, there were no other companies focused on diagnostics; instead, we competed with large and historic companies like Grifols. Now it seems that the sector has no limit, that the tree that practically started with a single trunk is increasingly reproducing and has more branches.

--- M. T.: And this is because Barcelona has a very solid base; things don't happen by chance. In Barcelona, there is a virtuous circle in the field of science: talent attracts talent and funding, with investors specialized in the sector, and increasingly the startups we have at the PCB manage to raise more funding.

--- And in the growth of the sector, and also in that of the former STAT-Dx, the Barcelona Science Park has played a fundamental role.

--- A. B.: Germans are surprised by the dynamism that exists here, by the energy there is. Here we are agile and energetic. In addition, we also share ideas and help each other among the different companies within the same PCB.

--- M. T.: The philosophy of our facilities is also this, that people who coexist in the same space not only share services, but also ideas.

--- There are even examples of workers who have moved from one company to another within the same facilities.

--- A. B.: Without going any further, the founders of STAT-Dx, Jordi Carrera and Rafael Bru, left the company when Qiagen bought it, and decided to create DeepUll and they also did it within the same PCB.

--- M. T.: For this reason, it is essential to have facilities like the PCB. At first we were the only ones, but now this model is being replicated. And in this trajectory, it is fundamental that there are specialized investors, who know the sector, but public-private collaboration is also very important. We increasingly have more funding in the health sector, also because the pandemic helped to realize the importance of investing in research and innovation in health.

"Our product is like a Nespresso, we can analyze, with the same test, different diseases"

--- A. B.: I remember that in January 2020, one of the workers commented that there was a virus in China that was being talked about a lot. And we were lucky that in the PCR we were developing at that time, we still had a free space to put another virus to analyze. On February 28, two weeks before the lockdown, we already had the product designed. Quickly, when everything exploded, we licensed it in the United States and Europe. We had a very valuable product, which everyone was looking for, because you could know the PCR result in less than an hour, when at that time results took more than two days. But we didn't have production capacity, and we asked the PCB to expand our facilities.

--- M. T.: At that time it was a sacrifice, because we didn't have resources, but we believed in the product and started works to concentrate all the spaces that Qiagen had dispersed within the PCB and expand them into a single space, which is the place they occupy now.

--- But we have left the pandemic behind and Qiagen continues to grow in sales. How does your product differ from other PCRs?

--- A. B.: The key to our test's success is that it was not designed exclusively for covid, like, for example, glove manufacturers, but rather it is a product that can be applied to this and other diseases, so we were able to maintain sales after the pandemic. Our product is like a Nespresso of diagnostics, which allows analyzing, with the same test, different capsules, which represent different diseases: respiratory, gastric, blood diseases... Thus, five years after the pandemic, the product still generates more than 100 million euros in revenue and respiratory diseases still account for 75% of our sales.

--- The product has grown so much that you have to leave the PCB, to move into the old Braun in Esplugues de Llobregat. Why did you need this new space?

--- A. B.: We needed to accompany the growth of the product, because it generates more and more revenue, but we didn't have the capacity to grow in production because the PCB doesn't have any available space. With the new headquarters, we have 8,000 square meters to run, and the license to build another 2,000 square meters, with the idea of doubling and even tripling revenue in the coming years.

"Now we are competing with companies that are big monsters, and we have done everything from Barcelona and with local talent"

--- A. B.: We have looked for a space nearby so that the change does not mean a drastic change for the workers. And, furthermore, we thought, how can we help the company from Barcelona? By expanding the R&D of our product, since the company's innovation has always been located in the Catalan capital. The goal is for this new headquarters to become a global hub for infectious diseases, but without losing production.

--- M. T.: This area is a strategic area, because it condenses universities, talent, companies, research, hospitals...

--- You are moving to a new plant with 400 workers. With all this trajectory, your history has become a benchmark for PCB companies.

--- A. B.: Ours is a story that I even like to tell friends, because it is an example of success, and we don't have that many in Catalonia. Now we are competing with companies that are big monsters, and we have done everything from Barcelona and with local talent.

--- M. T.: We also like to tell it because we wish it could be reproduced many times. We wish many startups that start with a small 50-square-meter laboratory could grow big and come to occupy 100 square meters, then 1,000 square meters, and grow so much as to go outside. It is evident that not all companies have to follow the same path, not all have to be bought by multinationals, there are some that stabilize at a hundred workers and this is also a success. But the mission of the PCB is to accompany them so that they can grow as much as possible within their capabilities.

--- And now what?

--- A. B.: Within the PCB we are seeing companies that even aim to surpass us.

--- M. T.: From DeepUll, by the founders of STAT-Dx, to Inbrain, Ona Therapeutics or Splice Bio, which is also another case that I like to tell, that of Sara Frutós, who did her doctoral thesis within the PCB, went to the United States and has now returned to found her startup here.