BIOSPAIN 2026

Dr. Bueren leads the Biomedical Innovation Unit at CIEMAT and also conducts research at CIBERER and the Jiménez Díaz Foundation Health Research Institute. Throughout his career, he has made decisive contributions to the development of new gene and cell therapies targeting rare and hereditary diseases, driving the translation of research from the laboratory to clinical practice.

Internationally recognized for his scientific contributions and leadership in the field of gene therapy, he has also served as president of the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, promoting the advancement and accessibility of these innovative therapies for patients.

At BIOSPAIN, he will will share an updated perspective on the advances transforming the treatment of rare diseases, as well as the scientific, regulatory, and access challenges that still need to be overcome to ensure these therapies reach all patients who need them.

The biotechnology sector is entering a new era in which innovation is no longer driven by scientific discovery alone. The increasing convergence of artificial intelligence, advanced therapeutic approaches, and data-driven clinical decision-making is fundamentally transforming the way new healthcare solutions are conceived, developed, validated, and ultimately delivered to patients. As scientific and technological capabilities continue to evolve, collaboration across disciplines has become essential to accelerate innovation, reduce development timelines, and improve healthcare outcomes.
From the earliest stages of target identification and drug discovery to the generation of clinical evidence that supports regulatory approval, market access, and patient care, biotechnology companies are embracing new technologies that are reshaping every step of the innovation pathway. Artificial intelligence is enabling researchers to analyse complex biological data with unprecedented speed and precision, novel therapeutic strategies are opening new possibilities for treating diseases previously considered undruggable, and real-world data is becoming an indispensable tool for demonstrating the value and effectiveness of healthcare innovations beyond the clinical trial setting.
This session will bring together three innovative companies representing complementary areas of this evolving biotechnology ecosystem. Their experiences will illustrate how cutting-edge science, digital technologies, and clinical evidence generation can work together to create a more integrated, efficient, and patient-centred model of innovation. Through their different perspectives, the discussion will explore how multidisciplinary collaboration is becoming one of the key drivers of competitiveness within the global biotech industry.
Beyond showcasing technological advances, the panel will also address some of the major challenges facing biotechnology companies today, including access to high-quality data, regulatory adaptation to emerging technologies, talent attraction, investment, and the importance of building collaborative innovation ecosystems capable of supporting companies from early-stage research through to market adoption.
The discussion will also provide an opportunity to reflect on Europe's position within an increasingly competitive global landscape. As biotechnology becomes more digital, interconnected, and data-intensive, strengthening collaboration between startups, healthcare providers, research organisations, technology developers, investors, and public institutions will be critical to ensuring that innovation reaches patients faster and more effectively.
This session is designed for biotech entrepreneurs, pharmaceutical and medtech companies, researchers, investors, healthcare professionals, and innovation policymakers interested in understanding how the next generation of biotechnology will be built through the integration of artificial intelligence, advanced therapeutic innovation, and clinical evidence.

The Biotech Act will establish the first comprehensive framework to promote biotechnology as a strategic sector for the European Union’s competitiveness, public health, sustainability, and technological autonomy. The law aims to position Europe in the global competition with the United States and China in this strategically important field.
About fostering biotechnology startup companies in the health sector, the Biotech Act outlines the structural conditions and mechanisms needed to accelerate innovation and improve the translation of research into market applications, so that such initiatives may be recognized by the Commission as “high impact health biotechnology strategic projects”.
The Biotech Act advocates for achieving critical mass through clusters - not hundreds of small biotechnology hubs scattered everywhere - but rather half a dozen large “super-clusters” capable of attracting substantial investment and offering strong, competitive capacities in innovation, manufacturing, and infrastructure.

The Decisions Behind Long-Term Success

Twenty years ago, 3PBIOVIAN was founded with a clear purpose: to advance global health by helping innovators bring new therapies to patients. Today, the company is a GMP manufacturing partner supporting healthcare innovators around the world.
What happened in between was neither luck nor a straight path to success. It was the result of deliberate decisions made over two decades of growth, transformation, and execution.
This roundtable explores the critical choices that enable biotechnology companies to move from scientific promise to industrial reality. Bringing together perspectives from an industry leader, a trusted customer, a quality and regulatory expert, and a growth investor, the discussion will examine the decisions that shaped the journey from startup ambition to international scale.
The conversation will explore the thinking behind those choices: setting a long-term strategic direction, building enduring customer partnerships, establishing a quality culture capable of meeting the highest regulatory standards, and securing the financial foundations required for sustainable growth.
This is a conversation about growth, resilience, and the decisions that turn ambition into lasting impact.

Advanced Therapies and Next-Gen Biotech Platforms to Deliver Global Health Impact
Given the relative strength of the Basque Country in industrial biotechnology capabilities—particularly in advanced manufacturing, regenerative medicine, and translational research—this proposal envisions a coherent set of 2–3 interconnected BIOSPAIN 2026 sessions exploring advanced therapies and next-generation biotech platforms from complementary perspectives. Rather than a single discussion, the aim is to reflect the breadth and maturity of the regional ecosystem by distributing expertise across multiple formats, including thematic panels and moderated discussions.
These sessions would collectively examine how scientific innovation, industrial scale-up, and clinical translation converge to enable global impact in advanced therapies. While each session would address a distinct angle—from platform technologies and manufacturing infrastructure to translational science and clinical application—they would be designed to offer a unified narrative around the Basque Country’s role as a European hub for advanced biomedicine.
Across the proposed sessions, participation would include leading voices from biotechnology companies, industrial-scale manufacturing organizations, and academic and translational research institutions:
The session provides a review of platform technologies and genome engineering, industrialization and manufacturing of gene and cell therapies, and translational research and clinical integration, depending on final program design.
Overall, this proposal aims to showcase the Basque Country’s distinctive positioning at the intersection of industrial capability, scientific excellence, and translational innovation, illustrating how regional strengths can be leveraged to drive global health impact in advanced therapies through coordinated, multi-stakeholder dialogue.

Quantum technologies are rapidly evolving from theoretical promise to practical tools across biomedicine and biotechnology. Early applications in drug discovery, molecular simulation, quantum enhanced imaging, and secure data infrastructures are already underway, supported by hybrid quantum–classical approaches and pioneering industrial collaborations. This panel will bring together experts from quantum computing, biotechnology, diagnostics, and cybersecurity to explore near term opportunities and realistic pathways for adoption.
Participants will gain insights into emerging use cases, regulatory considerations, and strategic actions enabling biotech and health organizations to prepare for the quantum decade ahead.

Introduction: Why Quantum for Biotech Now? (5 min)

Block 1 – Quantum Computing in Biomedicine: Molecules, Models and Precision Medicine (20 min)

Block 2 – Quantum Sensing, Imaging and Diagnostics: The Next Frontier (20 min)

Block 3 – Quantum Biotech Industrial Collaborations and Biomanufacturing (20 min)

Speakers TBA
Multiverse Computing
BasQ 

Women specificities in healthcare are gaining importance due to the higher socieconomical status in developed countries and insights from research highlighting sex and gender disparities in the development, prevention and treatment of diseases.

As an example, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death among women in the EU, yet it is still under-researched, frequently misdiagnosed, and often undertreated. Another case is that of migraine, an under-recognized women's health problem. Its high prevalence in women, the gender gap in diagnosis, and diagnostic delays have a significant economic, occupational, and social impact impacting career paths, leisure time, social life, and reproductive decisions.

Understanding women's health requires moving beyond a "one-size-fits-all" medical model to one that recognizes the profound impact of sex and gender on health outcomes and considers the differential needs in prevention and treatment. In parallel, there is a growing high-tech market delivering new healthcare products and services specifically designed for women, the so-called femtech sector, with innovations specifically designed for women’s wellness or care related to diagnostic devices, wearable sensors, etc. This panel will analyze this healthcare paradigm change and the related technological innovations as well as the integration of these aspects into routine clinical workflows by multidisciplinary experts including a cardiologist with expertise in digital health and AI, pharma and femtech companies.

A call to political action: propose a national health plan with a gender perspective, more training in primary care, more sex-disaggregated research, and greater institutional recognition.

Cell and gene therapies (CGT) have revolutionised the treatment of many conditions and they continue to attract significant levels of investment. Their development faces unique challenges, ranging from technical complexity, regulation, scaling production, and the requirement of innovative commercialization models. This roundtable will explore how CGT can be effectively translated into innovation that reaches the market, creates value, and improves people’s lives. A range of topics will be covered, with particular emphasis on some key challenges such as response durability, toxicity management, targeting of solid tumours, and the development of robust analytical workflows for functional characterisation, including approaches such as real-time cytotoxicity assays and multimodal cell profiling.