Pharmaphenix, a consultancy firm, specializing in business development in the life sciences in emerging markets, and the start-up Mind the Byte, specializing in products and services in the scientific cloud for the design of drugs, cosmetics and food industry, have participated at Biokorea 2014, an international event that took place from 28 to 30 May in Seoul. Both companies, based at the Parc Cientific de Barcelona, participated also in a business mission organized by Biocat –as a continuation of the European project bioXclusters– with the aim of establishing and consolidating institutional and trade links with Southeast Asia.

BioKorea gathers each year more than 3,500 representatives from the business world, public research institutes, academic institutions and government agencies from the biotechnology, biomedicine, innovative medical technologies and cosmetics sectors from around the world. In the 9th edition of the fair, Pharmaphenix and Mind the Byte- who shared a stand with the Barcelona Synchrotron Park (BSP), the Spanish Association of Biotechnology Companies (ASEBIO) and the Commercial Trade Aggregate of the Embassy of Spain in Seoul, presented their services portfolio to Korean companies, who are increasingly interested in including the European continent in their development strategies. Both companies held meetings with over 100 leading companies from various Asian countries and corporate investment funds with an interest in the biotechnology sector.

“South Korea occupies the 11th position in the global pharmaceutical market and its government will inject more than one billion dollars a year in the next decade to boost the country’s pharmaceutical industry and R & D +i. The cosmetics industry and the food industries, together with medical technologies are other sectors where the opportunities for the biotechnology industry have grown tremendously. Since its creation in 2008, Pharmaphenix, based in Barcelona and with offices in Korea, has served as a bridge between Asia and Latin America for many Korean companies and has connected European and Korean companies to market their products, raw materials or research projects through local companies”, explains Pascal Nizet, general director of the consulting firm.

“Attending BioKorea provided us many contact leads. We found out that we have a large potential market in the region and that penetrating such market by the hand of a well-positioned local partner like Pharmaphenix is very important to make a success of our project. Through the Pharmaphenix office in Seoul, Mind the Byte has been able to make contact with very important companies in Korea and other Southeast Asian countries and start a first round of trade negotiations to close collaboration agreements “, says Alfonso Nonell, founder and director general of Mind the Byte.

Catalan business mission

Pharmaphenix and Mind the Byte were also part of a trade mission organized by Biocat as a continuation of the European project bioXclusters (BIO crossing borders of 4 European Clusters for a joint Internationalisation strategy). This initiative encompassing four leading biotech and health bioregions, Biocat (Catalonia), Lyonbiopôle (Rhône-Alpes, France), BioM (Bavaria, Germany) and BioPmed (Piedmont, Italy), with the goal of promoting the internationalization of small and medium enterprises in these regions.

As members of this delegation, we were able to experience first-hand the biotech reality of the Gangwon province through different initiatives organized by the Chuncheon Bioindustry Foundation (CBF), such as the ‘Korea-Europe Business Biotech Showcase 2014’- where several European and Korean companies had 15-20 minutes to present their business projects, and the organization of a visitors program that included, in addition to the headquarters of the CBF, the Scripps Korea Antibody Institute(SKAI) and several other biotech companies in the region.