“La planta Piloto de Bioprocesos de IQS ofrece un marco único para dar respuesta a las necesidades de las empresas en el área de la biotecnología industrial: el escalado de procesos y la formación práctica. Y Bionet es el socio ideal para acompañar a IQS en estas actividades”
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Ricardo Egea, founder and CEO of Bionet Ingeniería.
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Let's start by talking about Bionet. When was it founded and why?
Bionet was founded in 1999 to work in a sector that's very different from the one we're working in now. We started as an environmental engineering consultancy to take advantage of the many opportunities emerging from the application of European legislation on Spanish industry. During the first decade of the 2000s, Bionet offered environmental services that ranged from environmental audits to building turnkey purification systems. Part of work included collaborations with public contractors on engineering tasks for urban water and wastewater treatment plants. Likewise, we were also active in building pilot plants for the environmental sector and also for the food and chemical sectors.
Toward the end of the decade several things happened that made us completely reorient our activity. The first was adding talented employees coming from a bio-pharmaceutical company. This company was dedicated to the production of antibiotics through large-scale fermentation but it was in bankruptcy proceedings. The second, which happened a little bit later, was the collapse of the market we served, due to the freeze in both public and private investments.
At that time we made two decisions which turned out to be really important later. The first was to capitalise on the team's knowledge to become active in the industrial biotechnology niche, while also prioritising sales activity in the area. The second was to start to develop our own technology, so that we were no longer an engineering company that designs tailor-made solutions for each client, instead evolving toward a company that makes products. This requires starting up important investment in R+D that we have been increasing over the years.
These two decisions have lead us to where we are now: a company that produces process equipment and provides biotech services, both at the laboratory and industrial level, with a range of leading products in the sector and with a global presence.
What distinctive characteristics would you highlight about Bionet's equipment?
The bioreactors, tangential filtration systems and auxiliary bioprocess equipment that we design and manufacture share a series of features common throughout the product range. The first is quality oriented to solid design and availability. At Bionet we have never scrimped on the quality of any of our components or services that could involve a risk of failure. After security, which is always our top priority, the most important aspect for a piece of laboratory or industrial equipment is that it always has to be available to perform its function. That's why our designs and constructions are made to work for many years without any errors.
The second is the flexibility based on modularity. Especially during the R+D phases, the equipment must be able to incorporate new capacities (especially in instrumentation) without any hassle. Bionet's bioprocess software programs (ROSITA and MARTA) allow the equipment to expand easily to incorporate new controls and actuators.
The last characteristic is constant technological innovation. Our goal is to have the most advanced equipment in the niches where we work and for their capacities to be similar to those made by companies that have been working on this for years. I would say that we are achieving this thanks to our major investments in R+D+i.
What is your clients' profile?
All our clients share a common characteristic: their activity has a truly important innovation component. This include technology service providers (Universities, Technology Centres and R+D Service Companies) and companies that are developing new processes for themselves.
By sectors, the field is growing every day. Biotechnology (understood as the production of molecules through biological processes and/or the production of microbial organisms or cells of interest) is growing. Years ago most of our activity was focused on the biopharmaceutical sector, however, today, we have clients that make bioplastics, dyes, cosmetics, biopesticides, etc. and a wide array of products for different sectors and applications.
Our clients come in all sizes. From start-ups with fewer than 10 workers to multinationals with tens of thousands of employees and offices in almost every country in the entire world.
What does the relationship with IQS, based on installing this new bioprocess pilot plant represent for your company?
Bionet's relationship with IQS dates back a long time and the installation of the pilot plant starts a new stage that we hope will be very fruitful.
It all started in 2013 when we jointly organised a working on scaling – "from the laboratory to the market"- for industrial biotechnology. The workshop was a success and we repeated it the last two years with even more companies attending.
This demonstrated that there was a strong interest in acquiring practical knowledge in process scaling and that IQS is a point of reference for many companies which have biotechnology among their immediate needs or medium-term objectives.
IQS's Bioprocess Pilot Plant offers a unique framework in Spain to respond to these needs: bioprocess scaling and practical training. It is also located in Barcelona, an attractive city to provide services internationally.
Bionet, due to our network of global contacts and the information that provides us about their needs, as well as our knowledge of processes and quality of our team (with five doctors dedicated to biotechnology processes, among others), is the ideal partner to work with IQS on these activities.
Which sectors can benefit with this new installation and how?
As I mentioned earlier, biotech is truly expanding in many sectors. In the case of IQS's Pilot Plant, the most obvious sectors are the chemistry, food and agricultural sectors.
The plant has the specifications and capacities to produce for these sectors, in addition to the fact that IQS has the background, technical knowledge and complementary services to provide them full services.
What is your vision of the future in bioprocesses? At the global level and more locally?
At Bionet we believe that the sector is approaching what we could call "the moment of truth". In recent years there has been growing investment in R+D to develop new products. Now is the time to leave the laboratory and jump to industrial production and the market.
This is going to generate many needs in multiple fields, like process scaling and optimisation, training technicians for new industries and supplying equipment and associated services.
The numbers back it up. To give two examples, biopharma is expected to grow more than 8% annually for the next five years (twice the rate of its industry and three times the global growth); and the market of biostimulants for agriculture is estimated to grow 10% annually.
We believe that this trend is very similar in different regions. We will see that the Spanish market is much more active than others, with many opportunities in all project stages, from R+D to industrial implementation.
Finally, what are Bionet's plans for the future?
We believe that we have the potential to become one of the three leading companies in our market niche. The technology we currently offer is, in many aspects, equivalent to that offered by our competition. These are companies that have spent 40 years dedicated to this activity and which have a consolidated distribution network.
Therefore, the first challenge is to improve the sales of our products and services. In 2019, 55% of our sales were through exports and that, considering the weight of the Spanish market at the global level, indicates our high potential for growth. The challenge may seem impossible but the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the sector is leading to distribution opportunities. Likewise, the expansion of the sector and marketing and digital commerce are also opening up new possibilities for a company like Bionet.
Without a doubt, this push for sales must go hand-in-hand with maintaining a strong investment in R+D which allows us to keep improving our line of products and to introduce new products on the market.
Lastly, our line of technology has to feature support services. IQS has been a fundamental element of our future in this strategy, thanks to its help in process scaling and training.