Vaccines and drugs are great allies in preventing and treating diseases. However, these medical treatments do not always start in the laboratory; surprisingly, they can also emerge from a supercomputer. It all begins with the discovery of a new molecule that can serve as the basis for these drugs. A process that, in many cases, entails a significant investment of time and economic resources in research. To streamline and facilitate this discovery of new molecules, researchers Modesto Orozco and Víctor Guallar devised a computational simulation tool that would allow accelerating and saving resources in the early stages of drug development.
The research by Guallar, an ICREA professor at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS), and Orozco, from the Institut de Recerca Biomèdica (IRB Barcelona), had so much potential for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry that both decided to found Nostrum Biodiscovery in 2016 to work on and commercialize this molecular modeling technology. Thus, they established themselves as a spin-off of the two research centers from which it had emerged, becoming the first spin-off company of the BSC.
This fact slowed down the company creation process because, although they had the necessary funding, thanks to the half a million euros contributed by the Botín Foundation, it took them almost three years to formalize the company. The transformation of knowledge generated within laboratories into companies to reach the market continues to be one of the great challenges for universities and research groups, but it was even more so a decade ago, when most of these centers still did not have their knowledge transfer offices or the mechanisms to facilitate the creation of this type of company as developed as they are now.
"The ecosystem is now very different from just a few years ago, as back then the adequate legal and administrative mechanisms did not exist to guarantee the success of these companies," highlights Guallar, one of its co-founders and co-director of the company's R&D department. Despite the initial obstacles, they were finally able to establish themselves as the first spin-off of the BSC in 2016, paving the way and laying the foundations for the transfer of knowledge from this institution, which currently already has a specific program to guarantee the relationship between the center and companies, under the name of BSC Connects. In addition to these difficulties, the company's incorporation process was also delayed because it involved different centers and institutions, such as the Fundació Bosch i Gimpera of the UB, in addition to the IRB and the BSC.
Even so, the company managed with half a million euros raised from the Botín Foundation to found and sustain the business, which in its third year began to be economically sustainable, thanks to the commercialization of its computational models that accelerated the drug discovery process. That is, the process by which new potential drugs are identified thanks to molecules that until now had either not been discovered, or had not been applied for certain treatments. A process that they facilitate and accelerate through modeling and predicting the behavior of these molecules on computers, increasing the precision and speed of studies prior to the launch of drugs and biotechnological products on the market.
In less than a decade, the spin-off has managed to carve out a niche in the market and commercialize its technological solution to large pharmaceutical companies such as Almirall, Esteve, or AstraZeneca. In total, they have worked on 130 projects for 52 clients from 13 countries around the world, mainly European countries such as the United Kingdom or Belgium, as well as the United States. The company's growth in recent years has also been reflected in a change of headquarters: from the laboratories of the Barcelona Science Park to its own offices in the Catalan capital, where they already employ more than 40 people from all over the world.
In the coming years, Nostrum Biodiscovery plans to accelerate its expansion process, a goal for which they opened offices in Boston in February, to reinforce their presence in the American country. In addition, their plans also include setting foot in Asia by 2026, surely landing in China, although they also consider the possibility of establishing themselves in South Korea, Japan or Singapore.
A growth that, however, they expect to be even higher in the coming years, calculating that they will close the year with 50% more turnover thanks to agreements they are "closing with four of the major global pharmaceutical companies," says Guallar. For some years now, the spin-off has not only focused on providing its services to external companies ---in addition to participating in public projects for the development of drugs for different diseases---, but they are also developing their own products that they can later license. This area of the company is experiencing such growth in recent years that the spin-off is already considering creating a second company to lead this part of the business.