Goodgut will open market in Europe to start its internationalization

The biotechnology company Goodgut, integrated into the Hipra group since September 2021, is testing European markets to introduce diagnostic tests for digestive diseases that it has developed and currently markets in Spain.

Mariona Serra, co-founder and director of the company, states that the objective is to introduce its diagnostic tests into the screening programs of the main European countries and, subsequently, to expand the brand to the United States. These types of controls are usually treatments performed under medical prescription.

The biotechnology company, after seven years of research and development, has managed to bring three diagnostic products to market and have a presence in more than 79 centers in Spain; in addition to direct online sales that began during the pandemic "because we observed that as a result of the restrictions due to confinement there were some problems accessing this type of tests," as Serra stated during a conference at Tech Barcelona.

The director of Goodgut explains that the company's growth plans, which maintains its structure, management, and brand within the Hipra group, also include the development of new products, within the same area of research interest. The investigated diagnoses correspond to the areas of detection of other inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or irritable bowel syndrome.

Currently, Goodgut markets three devices based on the intestinal microbiota that allow obtaining an accurate diagnosis of digestive health problems: an early detection test for colorectal cancer, a positive diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome, and a test based on 15 markers that allows knowing the state of the intestinal microbiota and identifying if there is intestinal dysbiosis or any specific imbalance.

Created in 2014, by Mariona Serra, Xavier Aldeguer, Jesús Garcia Gil and Jaume Amat, as a spin-off of the University of Girona and the Girona Biomedical Research Institute Doctor Josep Trueta (IDIBGI), the company "decided to choose an industrial investor, instead of a financial partner, to boost entry into international markets," explains the company's director.

With the acquisition of Goodgut, Hipra has strengthened its human health division, from which it has researched the new vaccine against COVID. The Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS), under the Ministry of Health, has authorized phase III of the clinical trial of the new vaccine. This phase of the research will involve 3,000 volunteers over 16 years of age, in 17 Spanish hospitals, and it is expected that one center in Italy and two in Portugal will be added.

In parallel, the pharmaceutical company is designing trials focused on children and adolescents and immunocompromised people and expects to have the vaccine in the second quarter of this 2022. In public statements upon learning of the authorization from health authorities, the Director of R&D and Registrations of the Catalan company Hipra, Èlia Torroella, highlighted that the vaccine being developed by the company has a "more potent" response against the Omicron variant of COVID-19 than the vaccines currently on the market, according to the results of phase II b of the clinical trial.