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The now-annual BIOSPAIN partnering conference took place in Barcelona this week. The event attracted the biggest players in the Iberian peninsula’s biotechnology industry and an increasing number of international attendees for three days of meetings, exhibitions, and presentations.
Partnering conferences like BIOSPAIN are a key component in the business development strategies of innovative biotechs as they seek to move their technologies and therapies forward in the development process. By collaborating with top pharma companies, large industry players, and venture capital investors, smaller companies can propel their assets towards clinical trials and secure financing to provide stability in uncertain times.
We were on the ground in Barcelona speaking to biotech companies, university technology transfer offices, and top pharma firms about their experience at BIOSPAIN and their progress towards securing partnerships.
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Public funding gets you started, but it’s not enough
Local, regional, and national politicians were high-profile speakers in the event’s content program, and the publicly funded investments, low-interest loans, and grants available to the biotechnology industry were regular talking points.
Public funding can be essential to the early development of biotech assets. Whether institutional grants directed to universities, public grants and competitions in the biotechnology space, or low-interest loans from regional and national governments to entrepreneurs and startups, public funding is relied on by innovators to get their biotech research off the ground.
In Spain, for example, the government allocated €18.4 billion ($21.4 billion) over four years through its State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research (PEICTI). This represented a 32% increase in funding in the sector for the period between 2024 and 2027. In France, the national investment bank BPI deployed €1.25 billion ($1.45 billion) into biotechnology and health technologies, with a total of €5.5 billion ($6.4 billion) invested in the sector since 2021. An additional €2.3 billion ($2.7 billion) has been mobilized from the France 2030 plan that is administered by the French National Research Agency (ANR).
Yet while this funding has proved essential for getting innovators moving, it is neither sufficient nor designed to support companies in the longer term.
Edouardo Salas, head of Technology Transfer & Business Development at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), explained that while his research institute was finding success in spinning out new biotechnology companies, the public funding was not enough to drive them forward.
“We have good equipment, we have good researchers, and this collaboration is good. This is a good place to start making business, but then you will probably require external capital in order to further develop the project. The main problem for us is the initial financial support and the initial steps of the spin-offs,” he said. “It’s difficult to further develop the projects based only on public grants so, at a certain point, we need to go to private funding.”
Private funding in the biotech world generally comes in two flavors: private venture capital, or top pharma partnerships and investments.
Partnering conferences as a gateway to venture capital for biotechs
When government funding is insufficient, the private sector can step in and fill the funding vacuum. Venture capital (VC) and corporate venture capital (CVC) firms maintain that there is always money to invest in good science. The reality, though, is that securing this funding can be difficult for biotech innovators in competitive markets and uncertain geopolitical times.
“I think there is money. The only difficulty is to find the proper partner,” said Salas. “In some years, they can invest, in some other years, they cannot invest.” He also explained that there are greater problems attracting VC funding for very early-stage science, though as things develop it becomes easier: “Later on, if the project is fulfilling the milestones, it’s easier to get the money. The difficulties are at the beginning.”
Tania Ortuño, head of Operations at Molefy Pharma, booked multiple meetings with venture capital firms present at BIOSPAIN. Molefy is advancing two assets focused on addressing neurodegenerative conditions, with their lead AP-2 compound aimed at treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Molefy recently secured funding for its phase 1 trial from the U.S.-based ALS Association, but they are already thinking ahead to financing their planned phase 2 trials in 2028.
“Meeting with VCs are really difficult. We have just three meetings in this congress, but for us it’s okay because we are not in a hurry,” she said. “For us it’s like a first contact, and that’s fine at the moment.”
Ortuño also highlighted the importance of partnering conferences for connecting with VC firms even if the funding would not be required immediately. Though Molefy’s phase 2 trial still at least two years away, timelines can tighten quickly, and funding deals need to be signed well in advance of deploying any cash.
“We want to start phase 2 in 2028, so, actually, we have to start to meet with investors now because we have to sign everything in 2027,” she said. “It’s not so far away, actually.”
How big pharma leverages partnering conferences
While biotechnology innovators use partnering conferences like BIOSPAIN to seek financing and collaboration, top pharma companies also rely on events like these to engage with early-stage researchers, startups, and out-licensors. With the plurality of newly approved therapies now emerging from research and development conducted outside of top pharma labs, those firms are increasingly active in leveraging partnering conferences for external innovation purposes.
BIOSPAIN attracted top pharma companies including Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly & Company, AstraZeneca, and Servier to Barcelona, and these firms spent much of their time on the ground in meetings with small biotechs and university tech transfer offices. Benjamin Turner, director Venture Science at Eli Lilly & Company’s CVC outfit Lilly Ventures, outlined his approach to accepting meetings at BIOSPAIN.
“Obviously we look out for things that our therapeutic areas are well aligned with, but really I’m just looking for novel science that I think could be a good therapeutic within the next five to ten years,” he said. “A lot of discussions I’ve had today are with very early-stage companies, novel platforms, things in the delivery space, maybe advanced modalities. I’m really just trying to understand what is out there and what might be a good investment.”
For Ortuño, securing meetings with top pharma companies is difficult and she has the impression that pharma firms are not very interested in partnering with biotechs prior to them entering the clinic.
“Usually, pharma starts to be interested in phase two or when ending phase one,” she said. “It’s like, ‘OK, when you have the results of phase one you can come back’.” At earlier stages, connecting with top pharma companies is about raising awareness about the company and its work.
“It’s like, ‘OK, I know you are around, but I’m not going to invest in you’,” she explains. “So, yes, they’re interested, but it’s not our moment, so we will wait.”
Other biotechs chose not to request meetings with the top pharma companies present at BIOSPAIN. This was not out of disinterest in partnering with top pharma, but because those relationships had already been established at other international partnering events.
Steffen Meyer, senior director Business Development at German mRNA company Ethris, said that his company had already connected with top pharma firms elsewhere. “We have been in discussions with representatives from these companies in other countries at larger meetings,” he said. “The local representatives here focus on different areas, and they are not the ones we are talking to at the moment.”
Ethris’ lead asset is ETH47, a pioneering inhaled mRNA treatment crafted to stimulate an antiviral reaction in the respiratory system. The company has dosed its first patient in a phase 2a trial in the UK.
While Meyer took multiple meetings with companies present in Barcelona, he didn’t fight for a place on the schedules of top pharma reps in Spain. “We’re already in discussions with counterparts from these larger companies in other countries who focus on the specific fields and disease areas we are working in, so building relationships elsewhere can be more strategic for our partnering goals,” he explained. “That’s the reason why I didn’t reach out to the larger pharma companies here.”
Next stop for European partnering conferences: Vienna
BIOSPAIN is a growing event and continues to expand its footprint on the European partnering conference landscape. With more than 2,200 attendees from more than 40 countries, the event stands as Spain’s most successful and international biotechnology partnering congress.
For many in Barcelona, though, BIOSPAIN is just the first step in a two-part European partnering push this autumn. The continent’s largest partnering conference, BIO Europe, is just a few weeks away and thoughts are already turning to how best to build on Spanish experiences in the Austrian capital.
“For BIO Europe, we actually bring an international team,” said Turner. “We have colleagues from our therapeutic areas come over from the U.S., usually from every single therapeutic area, and most of our team from Europe Lilly Ventures comes over for that as well.”
Even with a larger team, Lilly’s approach won’t vary. “The strategy is the same as what I’ve done here: it’s finding and meeting with venture capital companies and finding new companies we haven’t met before for new science.”
In a challenging period for the industry, the chance to secure facetime with public entities, private capital, and pharma connections at partnering conferences is one that will rarely be passed up.
Partnering 2030: Biopharma Report
