At 4 Years From Now (4YFN), innovation can be felt in every corner. With entrepreneurs and congress attendees everywhere, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) entrepreneurship hall presents everything from disruptive solutions seeking investors to become reality to large companies that have embraced the need for transformation to avoid being left behind. This is the case for major pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Novartis, Cinfa, Angelini Pharma, and Sequeralabs, who explained their vision for driving change this Tuesday at Banco Sabadell's BStartup stand.
"This is not about technology, but about our lives," began Orlando Vergara, ambassador of the digital health hub, Barcelona Health Hub (BHH). In this regard, Albert Farré, spokesperson for Novartis, gave the example of patients suffering from an ailment for which treatments already exist but the system is unable to provide them. "We have to be open to changing the way we think," he stressed.
At 4YFN, innovation can be felt in every corner, from disruptive solutions seeking investors to large companies that have embraced the need for transformationNovartis, according to Farré, has undertaken a transformation in its structure to facilitate the arrival of innovation throughout the value chain, with initiatives such as the creation of hubsfor the user experience. Along the same lines works Angelini Pharma, who executed that change in mentality more years ago, involving not only the digital team, but the entire business structure, detailed Gemma Malla, Head of Digital in Iberia."It became a part of the company, but we have also had to bring it to the business," he defended, so they have proposed new solutions for epilepsy, incorporated virtual reality, and sought new ways to communicate with medical professionals.
"Innovation is not something that can be done in solitude," interjected Jorge Pou, Head of Health Innovation at AstraZeneca. For this reason, at the British pharmaceutical company, they face the incorporation of new solutions and ways of working internally, with hubs around the world, and externally, collaborating with the entire healthcare system. "We always try to be part of the solution," he emphasized.
"We have to connect with startups, but also between corporations," Malla continued, focusing on the essential collaboration with public institutions to allow innovations to reach hospitals and patients. "We need a fast-track," Pou delved. "We are all patients and what we don't want are five different people trying to get our attention," concluded Julio Sánchez, Head of Innovation at Cinfa.
Very close to the innovation managers of the five pharmaceutical companies were startups such as Nuage Therapeutics, Inbrain Neuroelectronics, and Time is Brain, all of them participated by BStartup, Banco Sabadell's specialized service for emerging companies and scaleups. The emerging companies present at the BStartup stand at 4YFN these days are part of its investment portfolio, made up of 85 companies in which it has invested in its first decade of life.
Nuage Therapeutics is focused on finding new cancer drugs from proteins that had not been treatable until now, starting with prostate cancer. Based in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), the startup was created in 2021 and has private investors such as Asabys, CDTI, and BStartup. "We are a young company that in a year and a half has established its pillars. Now it's time to consolidate them and grow," explains its CEO, Judit Anido.
Very close to the innovation managers of large pharmaceutical companies were startups such as Nuage Therapeutics, Inbrain Neuroelectronics, and Time is Brain, all of them participated by BStartupFor its part, Inbrain Neuroelectronicsrelies on graphene to find new medical applications that allow stimulating and recording the activity of the central nervous system, with a focus on Parkinson's and epilepsy. Thisspin-off from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) closed a Series A round of 15.8 million euros in 2021, with investors such as Asabys and Alta Life Sciences participating, resources to which it has added a European grant of 7.7 million euros. Founded in 2020, it has a staff of 50 employees.
Finally, Time is Brain has created a medical device to treat people who have suffered a stroke, measuring their recovery capacity with the aim of referring them as soon as possible to the appropriate hospital. "Time is fundamental in strokes, hence the name of the company," said its founder and CSO, Antonio Dávalos. They plan to test their device this year in hospitals such as Vall d'Hebron, Trueta, and Germans Trias, where the clinical study that detected the biomarker allowing to see the state of the brain after a stroke was conducted.
Ninth consecutive year as main sponsor of 4YFN
These startups are some of the 15 that will participate in 4YFN with Banco Sabadell. On Monday, five startups from the field of sustainability and social impact presented; on Tuesday, five startups in health innovation and biotechnology did so, and on Wednesday and Thursday, new digital investments from various sectors will do so. The financial institution is present at 4YFN, where it repeats for the ninth consecutive year as the main sponsor, with its teams for financing and investment in startups, innovation, and technology.
In addition, Banco Sabadell offers its own program at its 4YFN stand, such as the debate featuring pharmaceutical companies. Likewise, within the official contents of the congress, three panels organized by the entity stand out, focused on the financial health of startups with representatives from Abacum, Housfy, and The Startup CFO; on the new growth paradigm for scaleups with Exoticca, Trendier, and Qida; and on great examples of the product led growth methodology with Wallapop, Kapita, We are knitters, and Factorial.
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