Tech Barcelona has officially inaugurated Pier07, the new Pier for health and life sciences in the city. The inaugural act, with the participation of 200 people, was attended by Manel Balcells, Minister of Health; Albert Castellanos, Secretary for Business and Competitiveness and CEO of ACCIÓ; Lluís Juncà, General Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Xavier Aldeguer, General Director of the Knowledge Society, Transfer and Territory; accompanied by Michael Vincent, President of Tech Barcelona and of miquel martigeneral director of Tech Barcelona, as well as representatives of the health ecosystem and civil society.
The Pier07 -a sustainable space of 6,000 m² located at Vía Laietana 26 and divided into 8 floors with a total capacity for 500 people-, has undergone a comprehensive reform by Nunez and Navarroas a sign of its contribution to promoting buildings focused on sectors with high added value that allow the revitalization of the city center with quality projects and occupancy.
Pier07 stands as a systemic space where the different agents of the innovative health and life sciences ecosystem can meet, locate their offices, organize activities and jointly seek solutions to challenges from technology, from Barcelona and with international projection. Therefore, the project becomes a space for collaboration between startups, corporations, research centers, innovation areas of hospitals, universities, Administration and health systems.
Tech Barcelona has launched Pier07 with the support and participation of ACTION, the agency for company competitiveness of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In addition, for the conceptualization of the new Pier07, the association has had the support of renowned health sector entities such as the Vall d’Hebrón Research Institute (VHIR), the South Metropolitan Territorial Management of the ICS (Bellvitge Hospital) or the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (I4KIDS project), and Tech Barcelona partners such as Ferrer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, Uriach, Vifor Pharma, Ediciones Mayo, Cushman & Wakefield, Nestlé, HP, i2cat or Trifermed, among others.
The investment fund specialized in health, Asabys Partners, he is the first tenant to have opened his offices in the building. In addition, in Tech Barcelona’s own coworking space, Chasing Science (a spin-off of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu), Adbio Partners, Trifermed and ACCIÓ will be installed. More tenants to be announced soon.
A front line sector
During the inauguration, the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells y Díaz, assured that “Today something that we dreamed had to happen is consolidated. We have a front-line sector that generates wealth in an ecosystem of life sciences talent with large research centers, with technology centers and with Biocat. The system is good and we have to make technological solutions solve problems to improve people’s quality of life. With this building we have a space where we can make things happen and we can implement the technological advances we have achieved in the public system”has explained.
The new Pier07 has a multifunctional auditorium, terrace for common use, a Tech Barcelona coworking space and private office spaces. The building, an original historic building from 1936, has been renovated by Núñez and Navarro, following the most advanced sustainability standards, and has LEED, WELL and WiredScore certifications. The rehabilitation of the building, located at Vía Laietana 26, promotes the enhancement of one of the city’s historic arteries, which is currently undergoing a full transformation.
The health and life sciences ecosystem in Catalonia it represents more than 9% of GDP and continues to grow. According to the latest BioRegió 2022 report prepared by Biocat, startups and scaleups have attracted 445 million euros of investment, almost double that of the previous year: 77% has been raised by venture capital funds and 12% by competitive grants. The Biocat study also points out that foreign investment, mostly from Europe, Asia and the United States, is very relevant in projects born and developed in Catalonia: 95% of the capital raised has had international investors.
