The Spanish Association of Bio-enterprises (ASEBIO) presented its 2015 annual report on biotechnology in Madrid on 5 July. The big news this year was that the biotech sector, according to ASEBIO, has continued to grow unstoppably throughout the crisis and, for the first time in history in 2014 – the most recent year for which data is available – equalled the percentage of GDP accounted for by tourism, one of Spain’s most important sectors. In fact, both account for over 10% of total GDP, establishing themselves as two of the major sources of wealth and employment in our country.
A report on internationalisation, patents and R&D
We would like to emphasise that the ASEBIO Report is very comprehensive and covers many aspects of the sector. In addition to comparisons with the tourism sector, the report, which distinguishes between biotechnology companies and companies that utilise biotechnology, provides some highly relevant data on biotechnology, public and private investment in R&D, patent registrations within the sector, key aspects of business activity and the extent to which these businesses have expanded internationally.
Strong performance of the biotechnology sector in Catalonia
The 2015 Asebio Report has revealed very positive results for the biotechnology sector in Catalonia. Among these, we would like to highlight that Catalonia is currently the autonomous community with the highest concentration of companies utilising biotechnology, followed by Andalusia and Madrid. Furthermore, Catalonia also tops the ranking for the creation of new biotechnology companies (19 of the 52 established in Spain in 2015), followed by the Basque Country, Andalusia and Galicia. .
For further information on this report, please see the full dossier in PDF format on the ASEBIO website or follow its official hashtag on Twitter: ##InformeASEBIO2015
At GTF, we believe that the fact the biotechnology sector has grown so much during these years of crisis is excellent news, and we very much welcome its increased engagement with the tourism sector, which is – and has been for many years – one of Spain’s economic pillars.