Top five biotech SMEs in Europe announced

EuropaBio – the European Association for Bioindustries – has announced the top five biotech SMEs in Europe, who will compete to win the fifth annual Most Innovative EU Biotech SME Award.

Nathalie Moll, secretary general of EuropaBio, stated: “I am delighted to announce the top five SME contenders for this year’s EuropaBio Most Innovative EU Biotech SME Award.  This year we have an exciting mix of excellent healthcare and industrial biotech companies, which are working on crucial areas to benefit society in their respective fields.  Sadly, as in previous years, there has been no improvement in the operating environment for agricultural SMEs in Europe, due to Europe’s hostile regulatory and policy environment for small and large companies operating in this sector.”

The top five candidates for this year’s award – which first began in 2010 – were selected from a total of 35 applicants from right across the EU and operating in all sectors of biotechnology. They are Autifony, an independent UK-based healthcare biotechnology company focused on the development of high value novel medicines to treat hearing disorders and serious disorders of the central nervous system, such as schizophrenia; Bio-on, an Italian company working in the field of industrial biotechnology applied to widely used materials, creating natural products and solutions based on renewable resources or on agricultural processing waste material; Biosyntia, a Danish industrial biotech SME providing unique fermentation solutions to chemical manufacturing companies; Erytech Pharma, a French biopharmaceutical company that is developing an innovative concept to starve cancer cells in specific essential nutrients and quickly induce their death without impairing any healthy cells; and to-BBB, a Dutch biotechnology company developing novel treatments for patients with devastating brain diseases.

The award has gained strong support and recognition as the main event amongst policy makers and the biotech business community alike for outlining the issues faced by innovative SMEs operating in Europe, such as intellectual property protection, access to finance, and the general innovation climate in Europe.  As well as this, the award aims to showcase some of the most outstanding examples of how biotechnology is of real benefit to society in areas as diverse as healthcare, agriculture, and industrial processes.

The annual EuropaBio award ceremony will take place during the European Biotech Week on 8 October  in Brussels. The award will be presented by Daniel Calleja-Crespo, Director General and Special SME Envoy, DG Industry and Entrepreneurship, European Commission.