The Catalan Biotechnology would benefit from an air route to Boston #news #economy

Catalonia is the most important biotechnology business cluster in
Spain, with more than 1,100 companies and with a turnover of €15
billion, 29.4% of the Spanish total.

The pillars of the Catalan biomedical sector are companies such as
Grifols, research centres such as Barcelona's Biomedical Research
Park, and university hospitals such as the Hospital Clínic. This is
the main highlight of Ernst & Young's Catalonia Life Sciences Report
2011, which was presented at the 2012 Boston Bio fair with the
presence of the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas. 60% of
the Spanish companies present at this year's edition of the most
important trade fair of the sector –Bio Boston– were Catalan.

The President of Catalonia, who is on an official visit to the United
States, visited the fair to encourage 70 Catalan companies and
organisations participating at the fair to continue their work as one
of the flagships of the Catalan economy. The day before he had visited
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he met with
Catalan researchers. In his visit to Massachusetts, Mas also met with
the former State Governor and US presidential candidate, Michael
Dukakis, and the current Governor Deval Patrick, with whom he signed a
cooperation agreement.

Besides leading the Spanish market, Catalonia is becoming a biomedical
cluster in Southern Europe in its own right, emphasises the report
issued by Ernst&Young. Catalonia has more than 1,100 companies,
organisations and research centres working on Life Sciences, employing
around 30,000 people (22,000 in private companies and 8,000 in
publicly-owned research centres). And most of them work in
biomedicine, a sector whose world leaders are states such as
Massachusetts. Catalonia's biomedical sector has 481 companies, 80
research centres, 20 scientific parks, 15 hospitals with their own
research programmes, and 12 universities. Hospitals, universities and
research centres have 435 research groups, which lead studies at world
level in the field of oncology or neurodegenerative diseases.

The Catalan President stated that Catalonia uses Massachusetts as a
model, as both share a similar geographical and demographic size, and
a similar economic structure. Despite the American state's economy
being around 60% larger than Catalonia's, both have an important
industrial sector, based on innovation and exporting. In addition,
both Massachusetts and Catalonia have a powerful biotechnological
industry, although that of the American state is much more important
than the Catalan. Furthermore, both territories are significant
tourist destinations, although Catalonia leads in this sector.

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