Self-help books, alternative therapies, and holistic medicine all circle back to the same line: "the answer lies within." We've heard countless times that the human body holds the key to our problems. Setting aside the spiritual and energetic framing, science is, in fact, edging ever closer to that same instinct to look inward — not through healthy diets or daily exercise, but through cells, genetic material, and tissue itself. These are the answers found within the human body, and in many cases, they've proven to be the key to developing treatments for diseases once considered incurable. This is precisely the research driving the advanced therapies sector: innovative medicines for human use based on genes, cells, or tissues, designed to treat complex or currently incurable diseases.
Until recently, advanced therapies sounded like science fiction. Researchers spent hours in labs discovering and testing cures for various diseases, with little means of bringing them to market. But as innovation has taken hold across global healthcare, many advanced therapies have found a path to patients. Kimberley Barnes, president of Phacilitate, a UK-based company operating in the advanced therapies space, tells The New Barcelona Post that "in just a few years, the sector has gone from being primarily scientific to a fast-growing commercial industry." Barnes's company connects labs and scientists with businesses looking to bring their findings to market, giving her a front-row view of how a field with plenty to say, but little room to say it, has climbed to the top of the healthcare agenda in many countries.
To put numbers on it: advanced therapies currently generate roughly $8.8 billion (around €8.1 billion) in business volume across Europe. More than a hundred such therapies are approved for commercialization, with another twenty or thirty expected to join them by 2030. The appeal extends well beyond Europe. Global business volume is estimated at around $64 billion (about €55 billion), with projections reaching $200 billion (€172 billion) by 2034 if growth holds steady.
Advanced therapies generate roughly €8.1 billion in business volume across Europe
Even as advanced therapies remain the primary engine for curing complex and currently incurable diseases, they don't always make it to market. Several obstacles keep this research from leaving the lab. The first, as Barnes points out, is simply reaching patients: treatments tend to carry steep costs, particularly because they're often personalized and target rare diseases, which complicates reimbursement. The sector also has to shift from treating small patient groups to producing therapies at scale — a shift that demands new business models and manufacturing processes. Automation, AI, and emerging technologies, Barnes notes, can help cut costs and boost efficiency: "The cure for large-scale production is innovation," she maintains.
Bureaucracy and regulation present a separate challenge for Europe. Barnes argues the continent is losing ground to China, where the path to clinical trials is shorter, as is the wait for drug approval. Europe's science is strong, she says, but regulatory fragmentation between countries remains a major obstacle. She also points to China's — and even the United States' — far more robust commercialization strategy, meaning parts of the European pitch simply aren't reaching potential investors. "We need a much firmer structure," Barnes concludes.
Barcelona, a hub for healthcare conferences
Catalonia is no exception to this growth, and Barcelona, in particular, stands as an undisputed hub for advanced therapies. Hospital Clínic has highlighted its own research in the field, notably CAR-T therapies for cancer, already approved by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) as non-industrially manufactured advanced therapy medicines. Beyond healthcare, Barcelona has also proven itself a major tech hub, capable of sustaining and growing innovative, disruptive companies. Together, these strengths are what Barnes believes "make Barcelona a great space for connecting people and building business relationships", the ideal setting for the Advanced Therapies Europe congress, organized by Phacilitate with the goal of continuing to connect researchers with potential commercial partners.
This year's event runs from Monday, September 7, through September 9. For the second year running, it returns to the Catalan capital, which Barnes calls "a growing European hub for cell and gene therapies," adding that the decision to return stemmed from "an ecosystem of companies, universities, hospitals, and organizations tied to the sector." As for the event itself, Phacilitate's president says it "has to be a space for real conversations." The goal, she notes, is to tackle Europe's core challenges — regulation, investment, manufacturing, and commercialization — head-on, and to find ways to keep Europe globally competitive. Ultimately, it's about strengthening the ties between countries that have already enabled a hundred patents to be approved across Europe, from one of the sector's best-positioned cities: Barcelona.