In 2000, the Basque Government advocated a decisive boost to the Basque economy in order to adapt to an increasingly changing and competitive world, making a strategic commitment to new strategic sectors based on knowledge and innovation. As a result of this reflection, the first strategy specifically designed for the development of biosciences in Spain was born: the BioBasque Strategy.
At the end of 2010, Basque Biocluster, a non-profit association, was set up with the aim of coordinating, representing, managing, promoting and defending the common interests of the associated companies, in collaboration with public administrations and other organisations in the field of biosciences and health, as well as contributing to the development, growth and internationalisation of its associates and the biosciences and health sector in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.
Fourteen companies were the founding members of the Basque Health Cluster:
- AJL Ophtalmic
- Bioftalmik
- Biolan microbiosensors
- Biotechnology Institute
- Dominion Pharmakine
- Histocell
- Idoki SCF Technologies
- Inkoa Systems
- INNOPROT
- Laboratorium Sanitatis
- Laboratorios Bromatológicos Araba
- Noray Bioinformatics
- One Way Liver Genomics
- Progenika Biopharma
Following the strategic reflection carried out in 2016, in January 2017, the Cluster assembly decided on a new scope and a new appeal for the Basque Health Cluster.
The biosciences and health sector’s commitment has proved to be correct, capable of adding value and generating wealth for the Basque Country, consolidated as a bioregion through the constant creation and growth of companies, and its fruitful relationship with the scientific-technological community that supports it.
The biosciences and health sector in the Basque Country is, more than ever, a strategic sector. Basque biocompanies embody qualities that make it possible to overcome the crisis and to deepen an economic model for the future: they have high rates of investment in R&D, they offer a highly qualified type of employment, they have a highly specialised demand and they are focused on global markets.
Updated 15 December 2020: