Actualidad

With a track record of more than 20 years in the sector, the company consolidates its international presence by developing I+D for the European pharmaceutical industry, while remaining committed to rural areas and the generation of quality employment in Galicia.

GalChimia was born in 2001 as a university entrepreneurship initiative under the Entrepreneurship Program of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). The idea was to create a chemical research laboratory with entirely Galician capital to provide an outlet for the potential and research talent of the universities of the Community, becoming a professional outlet first for the founders and, later, for graduates and doctors in Chemistry.

GalChimia was the first Galician company with a business model based on contract research. “Our business is focused on offering high value-added specialized services in synthetic organic chemistry, mainly aimed at the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries,” the company explains. GalChimia’s value proposition is based on the team’s high degree of knowledge and experience in organic synthesis, oriented to support the processes of discovery and development of new drugs. “GalChimia’s greatest assets are, without a doubt, its human capital and its innovative vocation, which allows us to continuously improve and adapt our services to the needs of the market. Our team is highly qualified and motivated, which allows us to play in the league of multinational pharmaceutical companies at an international level”, they say.

At present, and with more than 20 years of experience behind them, they have a turnover of more than 3 million euros, 75% of which currently corresponds to the international market. In 2020 they increased their production capacity with the construction of new facilities located in the Galician countryside, specifically in Touro. GalChimia’s team also increased to more than 50 people, who are currently distributed in 3 work centers located in Touro (A Coruña), Tres Cantos (Madrid) and Barcelona.

Business lines

Initially, GalChimia focused on the initial phases of the drug discovery process, especially on the design and synthesis of compound libraries, but they have gradually incorporated more capabilities and are now able to support all aspects of chemical synthesis related to the preclinical stages of research.

GalChimia’s chemists work for more than 330 customers in 35 countries on projects related to four business lines: research chemistry (aimed at designing and synthesizing new chemical entities in drug discovery projects); process chemistry (implemented in 2004 in response to demand from pharmaceutical customers who also required the optimization and scale-up of active ingredient manufacturing processes); analytical chemistry (purity determination services, chiral separation, stability studies, method development, shelf-life analysis, etc.); and finally, the catalog line (analytical chemistry ); and finally, the catalog line (research chemistry), which includes the design and synthesis of new chemical entities in drug discovery projects, as well as the design and synthesis of new chemical entities in drug discovery projects. ); and finally the catalog line (GalChimia offers through its online store a catalog of chemical products, which currently has more than 250 references consisting of pharmaceutical and pesticide standards).

A commitment to I+D+i

Galchimia is characterized by its eagerness to innovate and its commitment to scientific excellence, in fact, they have the Innovative SME Seal of the Ministry of Science and Innovation and were recognized in the Galicia Innovation and Design Awards granted by the Xunta.

In recent years, they have continuously reinvested more than 10% of turnover in R&D&I activities, dedicating up to 15% of the workforce to research projects. In addition, the company participated in 17 collaborative projects with top-level entities in regional, national and international calls for proposals. These collaborations allow the company to establish alliances with leaders in other areas of specialization and improve its competitiveness by positioning itself as a global benchmark in chemical synthesis.

Among the successes of its R&D, the creation in 2018 of the spin-out Origo Biopharma, a biotech created to continue the advances of its drug discovery program supported by the Galician Innovation Agency, stands out. “Origo went on to complete the first phase of preclinical trials with very positive results, being acquired by the Belgian group Agomab Therapeutics in 2021, which continued to advance with Origo’s projects and has recently just communicated the start of clinical phase 1 of the compound for treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and clinical phase 2 for the compound focused on Chron’s Disease,” they explain.

Currently, with the USC Biopharma group, they have a small molecule discovery program underway for the treatment of prostate cancer resistant to castration therapy (Maoprost project, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation). In addition, they are working with two international consortia on projects for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most aggressive brain tumor for which there is currently no cure. “The projects propose two different but equally innovative approaches: the ECM-CART project, in which we received CDTI support, combines nanotechnology with CAR-T cell therapy, while the new NuCapCure project proposes a new biosynthetic mechanism to improve the efficacy and selectivity of neutron and proton therapy in hard-to-reach tumors. NuCapCure is one of the projects approved in the Horizon Europe – Pathfinder Open call, one of the most competitive calls of the European Innovation Council (EIC), and we will start working on it at the beginning of 2024”, they explain.

Their main challenge now is to consolidate their position as leaders in organic synthesis at the international level. “We have capacity to spare, but we move in a very agile and changing industry, and we need to keep pace with both our customers and our competitors. To adapt quickly to the needs of the industry, we must be an agent of innovation in every way. This is where we expect our R&D strategy to give us the ultimate boost,” they explain.

Regarding the situation of the Galician biotech ecosystem, they highlight the fact that, as of today, Galicia is the second most bioentrepreneurial community in Spain, evidencing the good moment the sector is going through. “Our innovative ecosystem is one of the most active at national level, thanks in large part to the dynamizing actions of the Galician Life Sciences Technology Business Cluster (Bioga). The road ahead of us now is to consolidate the biotech fabric and achieve that critical mass that will make Galicia a reference beyond our borders. As we always say, “from Galicia to the world!

Original new: GalChimia,la empresa gallega referente en química sintética – oficinaeconomicagalicia.xunta.gal(16/01/2024).

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