The "la Caixa" Foundation accelerates market arrival of 23 innovative biomedical projects of great social impact

The "la Caixa" Foundation has announced the 23 projects selected in the CaixaImpulse program, in its two lines of action. The first of these, CaixaImpulse Validate, was created five years ago to support projects that are just beginning the process of technology transfer. Last year, a new line, CaixaImpulse Consolidate, was launched with the aim of offering support to projects in later stages of development, thus helping to overcome the valley of death, attract financing from private investors and, finally, reach the market. In this way, the CaixaImpulse programme has extended the scope of its influence and accompanies innovation projects through more stages in the technology transfer process. The ultimate aim is to ensure that these initiatives, which come out of the laboratory, end up improving people's quality of life. 

According to the European innovation scoreboard 2019 report, Spain has pioneering infrastructures, research centres and leading professionals - a valuable source of knowledge for the generation of wealth - but it also has a pending issue: its valorisation and commercialisation. This creates the paradox that Spain is 15th in the European Union in terms of innovation. In order to contribute to changing this reality, the "la Caixa" Foundation promotes the CaixaImpulse programme through two calls for proposals, Validate and Consolidate.

20 new biomedical initiatives, out of the 109 submitted, are the ones chosen in the CaixaImpulse Validate call. 95 of these come from research centres, universities and hospitals in Spain, 9 from Portugal, 1 from Germany, 1 from Croatia, 1 from France, 1 from Italy and 1 from Sweden. 

After evaluating the projects, the committee of experts has selected 20 projects. 10 of them are in the field of therapies and drug development, and the remaining 10 are medtech projects that include diagnostic techniques, medical devices and digital health projects. 

The projects come from different regions of Spain: Catalonia (12), Madrid (2), Navarra (2), Galicia (1) and the Balearic Islands (1). In addition, two initiatives have been proposed in Portugal. 

40 projects were presented in the CaixaImpulse Consolidate call for proposals, and 3 initiatives were selected: 2 from Spain and 1 from Portugal. The first two, in the field of medical devices, include: a light exoskeleton for neurological rehabilitation of patients who have suffered a stroke and an adhesive bioresorbable patch that promotes regeneration in cases of aortic dissection. These projects have already been selected in the CaixaImpulse Validate call for proposals, which further strengthens the solidity of the initiatives until they are set up as a company.

The projects submitted have undergone a two-stage selection process: in the first stage, all the proposals received are evaluated in a peer review format by experts and professionals from the life and health sciences and the business world; in the second stage, the leaders of the projects with the best score defend their proposal in a face-to-face interview before a panel conformed by European experts from different fields (pharmaceuticals, business schools and health or biotechnology companies). 

The panel of experts included, among others, Andrés G. Fernández, director of Ferrer Advanced Biotherapeutics; Yolanda Casas, Managing Director at Neuroelectrics S.L; José Luis Cabero, CEO at Aelix Therapeutics; Laura Sampietro, deputy director of Innovation at Hospital Clínic in Barcelona; Ricardo Perdigão, International Business Analyst at BIAL, and Ian Cotgreave, director of Strategic Scientific Development at Swetox (Sweden).

To contribute to the success of the 23 selected initiatives, CaixaImpulse offers: 

Financial support. Aid of up to 100,000 euros in the case of Validate and up to 300,000 euros in the case of Consolidate for each of the projects, for the execution of the asset valuation and business plans. 

Accompanying programme. Participants have access to an eight-month program consisting of mentoring, training, expert advice, and opportunities for generating valuable contacts for their project. In the case of Consolidate, the accompaniment is totally ad-hoc according to the needs of each project. 

Feedback on each project from the industry, the market and the reference experts, with a valorization and marketing plan validated by mentors and experts.

Immersion in the reality of the market. One of the distinctive features of the program is that it offers participating project teams, born and developed in an academic and research environment, an immersion in the market reality that will allow them to contrast their asset value proposal, adapt it and thus maximize the chances of success of the transfer. 

In both calls, the project selection criteria are based on four requirements: 

Quality of science and technical viability of the asset: level of innovation and development of the asset, and state of protection of intellectual property. 

Transfer potential: identification of the market opportunity and the need to be solved. 

Implementation, execution and development plan: valorisation actions that contribute to the project's progress towards commercialisation, the capacities of the project team and the involvement of the project leader. 

Social impact and responsible innovation: involvement of social agents and degree of contribution to improving the quality of life of citizens. 

The progress of the 102 projects participating in the previous editions of the programme supports the initiative. Since the start of the programme, the participating project teams have benefited from more than 2,000 hours of mentoring and advice, more than 700 hours of training and more than 1,000 meetings with experts. Likewise, 23 spin-off companies have already been set up and 8.7 million euros have been raised from other sources of funding. 

The projects participating in the previous edition stand out for the involvement of the whole industry, which in its different roles has contributed knowledge and experience to all the activities included in the initiative. Likewise, the programme's market orientation, which allows for maximizing the possibilities of success, as well as its flexibility and customization to adapt to the needs of each project, has been highly valued.