BIOSPAIN 2026: partnering, policy, and the rise of Spanish biotech

0:05Hello, and welcome to Beyond Biotech, the weekly podcast from La Biotech. I'm Dylan Kassane, and this is episode 212 for the podcast. Today, I'm thrilled to bring you a special episode highlighting one of Europe's premier biotechnology events, BioSpain. Joining me is Stuart Medina of Acerbio, who will take us inside this landmark gathering. For the first time, and in response to strong sector demand and growing interest, Bias Spain moves to an annual format. Hosted this year in vibrant Bilbao in Spain's dynamic Basque Country, the event runs from the 29th of September to the 1st of October at the Bilbao Exhibition Centre.

0:49In this episode, we explore the Biosbane program, the partnering opportunities on offer, the new Talent Day, and all the practical and logistical details for attendees. Biosbane promises unmatched networking and collaboration, and I hope you enjoy my discussion with Stuart Medina from Asabio. Stuart, welcome to Beyond Biotech. Actually, welcome back to Beyond Biotech. Thank you for the invitation. It's a pleasure to talk to you again. once again for an occasional another edition of Biospain. You've had a pretty busy year since we last had you on the podcast back in episode 165, almost a year ago now.

1:29What have you been doing? Well, obviously organizing the next edition, we have to start working on Biospain before we end the previous edition. We have an annual frequency. And then there's all the other international activities of the association. It's mostly participating in other international events like BioEurope, Swiss Biotech Days. We usually have a stand in those events. Also, we get international delegations, agreements with other international clusters, etc. So quite a busy year. We also had the Green Innovation Forum earlier this year in April. Of course, we're here to talk about BioSpain.

2:11this is a fixture in the European biotech calendar since 2003, so nearly 25 years now. What do you think has helped BioSpain become just one of the largest partnering events in Europe? Yes, I think it's a good question. I think it's, well, there's more than 20 years of history behind this. The association organized its first BioSpain in 2003, so more than 20 years of experience. I think also ASEBIO has been very good at trying to coalesce all the regional clusters and the sector. And I think people understand, even though Spain is a very regionalized country, I think people understand that there's value in having a large national event.

2:59and also to internationalize that event, to have it in the English language so that foreigners can participate and feel comfortable. That's another, I think, important factor. And I think all in all, also the fact that the industry in Spain is maturing. We are seeing a large number of companies in Spain. Some of them have managed to do initial public offerings for a large amount and private placements also for some significantly large amounts. So there's still ways to go. But I think it also shows that the industry is mature and that there is an industry. and all that put together I think explains that why BioSpain has become one of the main biotech events at least one of the main national biotech events and not as large as BioEurope but when we compare to other national events we see that BioSpain is one of the largest in Europe.

4:01Now historically it's always been held every two years but this year marks the first annual edition of bio spain why the switch we had been thinking about this for quite some time i know that for several years the discussion you know had taken place inside a cbo for for many years uh i think there was a bit of inertia uh you know we had traditionally had held this uh biannually or every two years rather um part of the i think the the reason why we took us some time is that there was sort of a sort of a commonplace trope that the industry in Spain was still not large enough for an annual event.

4:45I disagree with that point of view, obviously. I think it was large enough and the numbers are showing as we look at the registration numbers for this edition. We're saying that we are on path to meeting similar numbers to Barcelona last year. so it was a mix of inertia you know sometimes just making a decision changing something has been done the same way for a long time it takes time to convince all the all the uh actors involved but i think eventually i just the numbers were there and that's basically it you said last year we're in barcelona in catalonia this year we're over in bilbao why was the basque region chosen as a venue.

5:24What made them really compelling? Yeah, we have a call every so often for candidate venues or candidate cities and we get proposals from usually regional government administrations and cities and we got a very good proposal from the Basque countries, so that's number one. But there were other factors because we We also had received other good offers from other interesting sites. But we had some previous experience with Bilbao in 2016. Biospain was held there. I think also in 2012, if I remember correctly. And we had a good experience, a good show up and a good turnout, sorry. And very good support from the regional government, fantastic venue.

6:21and I think it's Bilbao, not as well connected as Barcelona, but fairly well connected to the rest of Europe. There's plenty of flights to other major cities in Europe. And also, I think another important factor is that the Basque country has a fledgling biotech industry. The Basque government has developed a very smart industrial strategy. They have invested in research centers and universities, creating sort of the R &D system that is needed, the universities that are needed for a biotech sector to develop, but also creating smart incentives, developing these, I think, beautiful, fantastic business parks in both Niobebao and San Sebastian.

7:17So they had plenty of elements to have a successful bio-spain there in Bilbao this year. You know, Bilbao's really known as one of these really avant-garde cities. That sits pretty nicely with an event that has innovation as such a clear focus, right? Yeah. I think Bilbao has transformed itself. It used to be, back in the 1980s, sort of the typical industrial city with smokestack industry, you know, shipyards, steel industry, that sort of industry, you know, contaminated the river, decaying factories along the riverside, etc. And I think it was a very intelligent decision of the provincial government of Biscay and the municipality to, you know, build the Guggenheim Museum, which is sort of an avant-garde building, a very, very iconic building of Bilbao right now.

8:21And try to sort of give new use to old industrial grounds, you know, make sure that it's become really now a service industry. I mean, the Basque country is a very industrial region still. There's a lot of industry, but the city itself has become more a service financial district and a lot more service oriented. Makes sense. You don't want smokestack industry inside a large city nowadays. And also around Bilbao and in the Basque country in general, you see this industrial strategy, which is based on, you know, making a bet for more advanced industries, aeronatics, biotechnology, et cetera, new materials.

9:04So they really have a very, I think, smart industrial development strategy, which is, you know, placing them, you know, helping them sustain all the competition from the Southeast Asia, right? So all the low-value added industry has moved over to Southeast Asia and trying to reposition the bus country in a more technologically advanced and very competitive and very sophisticated industry. So it's been a smart strategy. I think it's spanned out very well for them. Let's talk a little bit about the program at BioSpain this year. There's always some great panel sessions, some great talks. What are the major themes and the topics for this year's program?

9:54Well, we have structured the program in four tracks. One is regarding policy and regulation. So one of the star topics of discussion will be the Biotech Act, which is being discussed in the European Parliament, was proposed by the European Commission, Biotech Act 1 and 2. So there's going to be plenty of that. There'll be other topics as well. Substance of a human origin is one that comes up to mind right now. You know, industrial policy as well in the bus country, which I just talked about, will be probably there as well. The UK is our guest nation this year. So the discussion and opportunities for business with the UK as well.

10:43and artificial intelligence and quantum computing is another as another topic which is going to be in the program we have another track on health on human health and then we're going to have of course panel discussions on AT &Ps neural developments in neurology women's health is one that is I thought was very interesting as a proposal we received and I thought you know we hadn't talked about women's health and there's a lot to talk about women's health and that's i think that's going to be an interesting uh session as well uh we have a track on uh on bioeconomy what we're calling bioeconomy meaning biotechnology applied to agriculture industry renewable energy food tech etc so we'll be talking about for example engineering you know engineering materials there'll be something about fishing and in the Atlantic there'll be opportunities there'll be discussions on circularity and the opportunities opens up for the industry we also have a session or a track dedicated to finance and investment in a room which we've named after Raul Martin who was a very respected and beloved person in the VC industry here in Spain, who unfortunately passed away last year.

12:13The other rooms are named after scientists, but this one is the first time we name a room after ornatorium after somebody in the VC industry. And we'll be having several startup pitch presentations and also discussions on the new deep tech fund that the Spanish government has introduced to co-fund VC funds in Spain, especially for early stage projects. So there's going to be plenty to talk about. I think a lot of topics, and I think everybody will find something interesting to hear and sit down and relax between meetings, right? because sitting in a panel discussion is also an opportunity to relax and pay attention to what's happening.

13:06We also have Juan Bueren, who is a scientist at Ciamat, which is a research center here in Madrid, who's been very successful in developing viral vectors and advanced therapies based on those viral vectors for the treatment of rare diseases. So a very interesting keynote speaker. So lots of things going on. And then on the last day, we always have our talent day. I'm sure we can let it get a few minutes to that issue as well. But the talent day, we'll have some sessions on talent retention, talent attraction, opportunities in the biotech industry, et cetera. Yeah, I'm definitely going to ask about the talent day in just a second.

13:49but I guess what's at the heart of BioSpain is the partnering. What sort of options are available this year? Are the one-on-one meetings still there? Absolutely. It's one of the most valued aspects of the program. When we do our surveys of customer satisfaction, so to say, of the event, one-on-one partnering is probably one of the most valued aspects we had. But we're using EBD's Partnering One system. We've been using it for this edition and last edition as well. It's the same system used in BioEurope, but it works very well. It has an advantage that if you participate in other events with EBD's Partnering System, you can pull up your profile and all the meetings you had from previous editions.

14:43So it's helpful. and last edition we had about 4 ,500 meetings arranged in which we have 130 partnering booths with the walls and a table and four chairs so the people have some confidentiality, not much because the walls are not soundproof, of course, but at least they can sit down and have a half-hour discussion and meetings that have been scheduled previously through the partnering system. so a very effective tool i think it's it's a cornerstone of of uh of biospain it's it's many people come to biospain because they want to network meet do business find partners licensed technologies etc and uh it's it's indispensable we need we need the tool and it's going to be there and it's going to be the the backbone of biospain forever so definitely there so all you have to do is register in biospain and then immediately you get an automatic registration to the partnering system.

15:42Set up your profile, start searching for participants, publish your own goals and proposals, and start asking or requesting for meetings. The earlier you start, we'll open the partnering system in August. So the earlier you start, the better. And if you plan in advance and you manage the system well and you learn how to use it, you can end up with 30, 40 meetings easily. Let's talk a little bit about the people who are taking these meetings. I mean, BioSpain might jump from Barcelona to Bilbao, but it's really an international meeting. I looked at the figures in 2025. There were 2 ,400 attendees, more than 1 ,000 organizations, and more than 30 countries.

16:26What sort of international participation are you looking for this year? Yeah, I'm guessing we'll get similar numbers. We want to continue internationalizing. It is BioSpain, of course. The focus is business in Spain, of course, naturally. But there's a lot of opportunity for foreign companies to meet partners in Spain. It could be somebody who's trying to raise capital in, say, another European country. And, you know, we do have about 80 investment firms in Biospain, and many of them are Spanish, but also a lot of them are foreigners. So there's no reason why you cannot find your investor in Biospain, even though you might not be doing your regular business in Spain.

17:15We have a lot of, I would say, presently about almost 30 percent of the exhibitors in the trade fair are foreigners, are foreign companies. and about 26-27 % of participants are from abroad. As I said before, the whole event is in English. The sessions are in English with some exceptions, but most of the event is in English. The website is in English. The signs are in English. The events are in everything. The speeches are in English. So that makes or helps or facilitates international participation. We have a program to support international delegations, to help international delegations set up their booth and participate at discounted prices.

17:57So that's something if you're listening from an international cluster, a European cluster, just take a look at that program and we're happy to help you make it happen and give you all the facilities. We're going to have an event within the event which we're calling Connecting Global Partners. We'll have roundtable discussions with international delegations in Spanish, representatives of Spanish companies. And here you're going to find Spanish research centers, universities. Of course, most of the participants are biotech SMEs, CEOs mostly, CTOs, CSOs, you know, COOs, business development officers, etc.

18:40Some of the pharma companies as well, both Spanish and international. You know, you'll have people like, you know, Ferrer, Almiray, Grifols, Esteve, all those Spanish pharma companies here, technology transfer officers. There's a lot of a growing presence of Latin American biotech companies, and you have to start paying attention to what's happening. countries like Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, even Chile, Colombia are seeing, you know, some fledgling biotech industry there as well. So, you know, this could be a meeting point for European and Latin American biotech companies. So, and also we want to get the European Commission involved, inviting the European Commission to participate in these discussions about the Top Biotech Act, and let's hope they're represented and then they come and discuss with the industry.

19:35This is a good venue for them to see what the industry thinks about the Biotech Act. And we're hoping that they can get engaged in an honest discussion with the representatives of the industry of all over Europe. You know, lots of good reasons for international people to be coming to Bilbao, to buy with Spain. But it's also really good for the local biotech sector to have international people coming in, right? Absolutely. This is, I think, I think that one of the big contributions of BioSpain to the sector, to the industry is creating awareness that there is an industry here. It's just the fact that, you know, people start coming and, you know, maybe the first exposure to Spanish biotech is at BioSpain.

20:22And suddenly they come here and say, oh, well, there is an industry. There are, there's about a thousand companies. I can meet over 2 ,000 professionals in three days. I think Biospain has contributed tremendously to creating awareness about the existence of a Spanish biotechnology industry and a growing biotech industry. And also that you are starting to find some significant players in your part of the value chain. I'm talking about CDMOs, CROs. I'm talking about investors. You start seeing some larger VC funds. I mean, I just remember when I started in this industry in the early 2000s, the size of the VC funds here was very small.

21:08And most of them couldn't invest more than a million euros. And as we all know, a million euros is not enough to make a difference, right, in a biotech project. And now you start seeing, you know, the Spanish government contributing money to co-investment funds. You see large funds like Asabi's, ECO's, Inveredi, et cetera, who are capable of mobilizing large amounts and getting other VC partners involved. So things are happening and also a clinical, you know, a health system is willing to get involved with clinical research. And we're seeing that Spain has become one of the leaders in clinical research in Europe.

21:54So another good reason to do business in Spain, you can meet some of the clinical research centers like, I don't know, Hospital de Valle de Brón, Hospital del Mar. all those large Spanish hospitals which are doing first-class clinical research in collaboration with the industry worldwide. So another good reason to come. Stuart, you mentioned a couple of minutes ago something called Talent Day. Let's talk a little bit about that. That's the final day, the 1st of October. What exactly is Talent Day? The talent is a job fair. The reason we started doing this is that probably spend the last two days and a half.

22:35And typically, of course, the last day, a lot of people leave. A lot of the, you know, it's understandable. People have been doing business for two days. They have other things to do in their office, you know, fires to turn out in their office as well. And they have to get back to work. But so we have a lot of space to open the gates and let students in, you know, or researchers, people who are doing their, you know, the PhDs or their postdoctoral research in a research center and are starting to think about a career in the biotech industry, or people have been doing research for several years and are starting to think of, you know, maybe I want to go into the industry.

23:19And so we let them in for free that day. It brings in a little bit of an extra, you know, a little bit of more, you know, makes the event a little more lively that day and uh we started to notice that um you know there wasn't a job fair for the biotech industry in spain we just there wasn't one there were other job fairs but there wasn't one specifically addressing the needs of the biotech industry and people who are working in the biotech industry and and we we started uh you know placing more emphases in that part of the event and uh What we now do is we invite, of course, HR managers, personal managers of biotech companies to submit their job offers.

24:05And we have a different partnering platform for the talent day. So candidates can submit their CVs and companies can submit their job offers and they can interact and try to set up an arrangement. and arrange a meeting. We allow them to use part of the partnering booths that we're using for the partnering system. So we set some of those apart. And last year, we managed to set up 125 job interviews. I'm hoping to increase that number this year, hopefully, as people grow more aware of the town day because I think a lot of companies were not aware that we were organizing this event. and the nice thing about it is that's for free.

24:48We don't charge anything for that part of the event and we let the HR managers getting for free that day as well as the candidates. And then we also have some panel discussions as well. So it's another reason to come to Baya Spain. Can you tell me how it actually works in practice? If you're a HR team, how do you organize yourself to get there? And if you're a job seeker, where do you have to go? Yeah, well, there's a registration specifically for the Talent Day. It's on our website, on the biospain.com. You'll find in the top menu, you'll find Talent Day right there. And all you have to do is register.

25:29You don't even need to be registered for Biospain. You register for the Talent Day. I will only allow you to enter the premises of the exhibition hall on the last day, not for the other three days. You need a full registration for that. And once you've registered, you can upload your profile, your company profile, your CV, your job offers. So they're visible to other participants in the talent day. And then you can request appointments. If you're a candidate, you can look and browse those job offers and request appointments. And hopefully you'll manage to attract their attention and they will accept an invitation or vice versa.

26:15Maybe a company might be interested in a candidate and they'll invite them for an interview. They'll get about 20 minutes interview. So it's a nice first interview. And hopefully that will lead to another, you know, longer interview out of the remises and another date. But I think if you plan it in advance, it's already open for companies. Companies can already register. Students will let them, or candidates rather, let them register in August. And we'll also be sending, you know, information to universities, these research centers as well, help them disseminate, you know, spread the word that we're having this job.

27:07And a lot of research centers are concerned about the future of their postdoctoral researchers, et cetera, who might not have a permanent spot in their research center. So they're more than willing to help send information out to their employees. So we're trying to get, you know, some of the best research centers in Spain involved and sending their students and researchers to the event as well. Let's talk practicalities. The Talent Day tickets might be free, but for everybody else, what are the ticket options and where can people register? Yeah. Well, I think I mentioned their website. It's BiasPain.com, so it's easy to remember.

27:55if you go in there you will see a menu you have a one place where you can register as an attendee we have three ticket options one is for members of the association those obviously get the cheapest ticket another ticket is for companies people who work for companies or institutions domiciled in the Basque country so that's part of the agreement we have with the Basque government who's supporting the event and then there's a standard ticket for non-members and non-residents of the best country so to say uh and that's just a full ticket that gives you access for two and a half days to the trade fair the the whole uh you know the the program of roundtable discussions and the and the uh the networking events in the evening uh the partnering system everything okay so then then you also have uh people want to put up or set up a booth we've sold out more than almost 60 % of the spaces already.

28:55But there's still spaces left if you're interested in exhibiting. There's also different prices for members and non-members and companies domiciled in the bus country. And we have six square meter modules. You can buy as many as you want and join them into a larger stand if you want. We even have some large pavilions for major sponsors, which have 24 square meters. and you can also have your own partnering booth if you want to stop running around like a chicken without a head through the booth trying to find a number. You can also have your own partnering booth and you can just sit there and have all the people who want to meet you and they're coming and you're just hosting them in your private space.

29:43We also have sponsorship opportunities, the standard bronze, silver, gold and platinum each one as you can expect the platinum has associated more perks a larger booth or more registrations the opportunity to get involved in the design of the round tables the program suggesting topics and speakers the bronze is more limited but they all get some form of visibility either in the website or in different social media or branded content. And then there are other sponsorship opportunities which can give you visibility in throughout the event such as the partnering area can be sponsored, the app, the registration, you can sponsor a track for example you say I want to sponsor the talent day for example, or want to sponsor the finance and investment track, that's another possibility.

30:47Your logo will be there and you'll get a roundtable. You'll get to organize a roundtable and discussion in that track as well. So, you know, there's all the information on the website and you can reach out to me or my colleagues and we'll be happy to even design a sponsorship to your, you know, sort of customize it to your needs. So we're very flexible and try to make these sponsorships as customized as possible. It certainly sounds like it's going to be a great event. Dozens of countries, thousands of people there. Is there a final message you want to share with people who are tossing up about whether they should be there at BioSpain in 2026?

31:27Well, I think, yeah, I think if you've never been to Spain or have never been engaged in the Spanish biotech industry, I think this is just the best way to touch base. I mean, you're never going to find a quicker way of meeting more people and more companies. And, you know, often when I go to buy Europe, you know, I get approached by people who are interested in doing business in Spain, but don't know where to start. And I say, well, yeah, you can go to Barcelona, but then you're going to miss out on all the other clusters in the country. And Spain, for European standards, is a fairly large country.

32:05And it takes time to move from Barcelona to Bival, from Val Bial to Madrid. And the fastest way to get to all those towns at once, rather than traveling there yourself, is to go to the Biospain and meet people from all over Spain in one go. And even from other European countries, we're going to have delegations from Portugal, the UK. The UK is the guest nation this year. you're going to find people from Argentina from Uruguay, from Mexico from Switzerland, Germany etc. So it's an opportunity that I don't think you're going to get a similar one to BioEurope in November and it's going to be harder for you to meet as many Spanish companies and Latin American companies in BioEurope as you can meet in BioSpain I mean in BioEurope you'll meet maybe there'll be about 30 Spanish companies.

33:04And by Spain, you're going to meet over 800 or 900 Spanish companies. So it's the fastest way to touch base with the Spanish ecosystem. And moreover, you're going to also have fun because we try to have networking events where hopefully you will enjoy the evening and it's a fun city as well. So there'll be a good mix of business and pleasure. it's a compelling case it's always great to talk to you Stuart thanks for joining us today on Beyond Biotech thank you so much for the invitation and I hope to see you and we bow soon Dylan that's it for this episode don't forget to check out all the latest news and analysis at labiotech.eu I hope wherever you are in the world you have a great week ahead thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us again next time for another Beyond Biotech