On Friday July 12 the First Conference of Biotech entrepreneurship organized in collaboration with the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) was held at the Rafael del Pino Foundation . The foundations auditorium hosted a large audience of entrepreneurs, members of pharmaceutical industry and the media. With half an hour delay and in an atmosphere of interest and a willingness to debate José María Fernández, head of financial engineering lab at MIT, was in charge of opening the first panel of the day: "Financial options and strategies for biotechnology initiatives "with the participation of Manuel Valle, CEO of Industry and SMEs and president of ENISA, Julia Salaverría Ysios Capital partner, and Andrey Zarur, speaker at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship.
The first intervention was made by Manuel Valle, which examined the relationship between universities - companies, wondering what happens in Spain so that we do not produce university spin-offs as in other countries. He also emphasized the importance of developing useful patents from university research. Meanwhile, Julia Salaverria, spoke of the work performed by her company: invest in projects that seek to create new medications. Salaverría noted that when choosing a project, her company valued primarily the teams characteristics and degree of flexibility. She noted that due to the current economic situation in Spain, it is advisable to try to seek outside investors. Finally,Andrey Zarur, analyzed the reasons why the entrepreneurial system triumphs in the U.S.A and not in Spain. Zarur concluded by noting that "the education that Spain needs is not only for the younger generation, but also for public and private companies," adding that "while there is no real effort to remove barriers for entrepreneurs, this will not move foward”.
Meanwhile, Marisol Quintero, Director of Innovation at the CNIO, was commissioned to open the second panel, entitled "Business experiences: key to scientific and business success" in which three renowned entrepreneurs told their personal stories and analyzed the keys of success when starting a project. Javier García spoke first, independent consultant, who said that for him, the key is to ask. He pointed out that in Spain we should have the culture of going to ask people, and to ask ourselves what we are looking for. Eduardo Bravo, CEO of Cellerix-Tigenix said the odds are against the entrepreneur: he also stressed the importance of specialized venture capital. Finally, Elisabeth de los Pinos, Founder and CEO of Aura Biosciences, said it is essential to align with the market so that the investor is aligned with you, as well as make themselves known, stating that "in the world of entrepreneurship is not as important what you know as to who you know, so networking is key. "
