• GalChimia has doubled the facilities and personnel of its R&D&I center at the Barcelona Science Park, which was established just a year ago to accelerate its growth and internationalization strategy.
  • Coinciding with the inauguration of its new laboratories, the company celebrated the first “GalChimia Day”, an initiative to share the knowledge and experience of experts from the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in the field of drug discovery and development with its clients and the scientific community.
  • GalChimia, a Galician company founded in 2001 by two doctors in organic chemistry – Carme Pampín and Jacobo Cruces, is today an international reference as a provider of organic chemistry products and services for the pharmaceutical sector, with more than 270 clients in 30 countries.

Barcelona, June 19, 2019. The Galician company GalChimia, which specializes in organic chemistry products and services for the pharmaceutical sector, is consolidating its presence in Catalonia. Its R&D&I center at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) has doubled its surface area since the company established a research facility there just over a year ago.

To officially introduce its new laboratories, GalChimia gathered yesterday almost a hundred people from academia, science, and business. The company was represented by its founders, Carme Pampín and Jacobo Cruces; as well as professors from the University of Santiago de Compostela Ramón Estévez and Gabriel Tojo, who are partners in the project; Santiago López, who is a member of the board of directors; and Julie Masse, the Commercial Director and Head of the GalChimia R&D&I center at the PCB.

“The expansion of our center in Barcelona closes the first phase of the investment plan for the 2019–2021 period, which will be complemented by the construction of new laboratories at the company’s headquarters with an estimated infrastructure budget of €3 million. In this way, we aim to strengthen our technological and innovative ability to stay at the forefront of chemical research,” says Carme Pampín, CEO of GalChimia and president of Bioga, the Galician Life Sciences Business Technology Cluster.

“The creation of a new laboratory and subsequent staff growth in Barcelona arise from the need to expand our facilities to respond to a significant national and international increase in demand. However, we have brought forward the objectives for staff by one year, with a full laboratory in June 2019, which was originally planned for mid-2020” reveals Julie Masse, Commercial and Marketing Director and Head of the GalChimia R&D&I center at the PCB.


GalChimia Day: Successful experiences to generate knowledge

Coinciding with the inauguration of its new laboratories, the first “GalChimia Day” was hosted yesterday at the Barcelona Science Park auditorium. This is a company initiative to create a knowledge and networking event, where young researchers can extend their knowledge in strategic areas of drug discovery and development from the lessons learned and expertise of leading representatives of the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and academia with successful experiences in this field.

With more than 270 clients in 30 countries, GalChimia is an international reference as a supplier of organic chemistry products and services for the pharmaceutical sector. Over the last 17 years, its team has successfully completed over 1700 projects in the field of drug discovery and development for large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology start-ups leader in their fields, providing extensive knowledge on the role of chemistry in this area.

“For a pharmaceutical company, chemistry is the basis of its development; it is the active substance of its products. With over 17 years of experience working in this sector, we have participated in the successes and failures of many projects. We have had the privilege of working closely with excellent scientists and companies that are leaders in their fields. As a result of this work, we have established an exceptional team of chemists who are used to facing difficult challenges and providing solutions for clients around the world”, explains Jacobo Cruces, company co-founder and Scientific Director.

“Now with ‘GalChimia Day’, we want to create a meeting place where young researchers can learn about the challenges that other scientists have already successfully faced, with the aim of helping them advance faster with their research programs”, he adds.

In addition to Jacobo Cruces, this first meeting also counted with the presence of speakers Enrique Fernández, Project Manager at the Barcelona center; Antoni Torrens, Head of Collaborative Chemistry and Strategic Alliances in Esteve; Luc Marti, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Cebiotex; Richard Roberts, Director of Medical Chemistry at Kærtor Foundation; Guido Kurz, CEO of Oncostellae, and José María Palacios, founder of Frontera Biotechnology. Prominent customers of the company and representatives of large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies also attended the event.


About GalChimia

GalChimia was created in 2001 as a spin-off linked to the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) by Carme Pampín and Jacobo Cruces, two young doctors at the time, and professors Ramón Estévez and Gabriel Tojo, all  from the Organic Chemistry Department at USC, who decided to embark on a pioneering business venture in the field of chemical synthesis. UNINOVA – an innovative and technology-based company incubator sponsored by the USC and the City Council of Santiago – supported the entrepreneurs to define and promote their business plan. UNIRISCO Galicia, a venture capital company, funded the project.

The headquarters of the company are located in Galicia, in the town of O Pino (A Coruña), with a research center in the Barcelona Science Park (Catalonia) and another one in Madrid. It is staffed by 50 professionals (over 60% of which are doctors in chemistry) with a flexible and innovative spirit to undertake projects that require advanced processes of “applied creativity”.

At present, GalChimia holds a prominent position in Spain within the field of synthetic organic chemistry. Its portfolio ranges from research chemistry to process development, including analytical development. The company also provides scientific advisory services, technical consulting, and support for basic and technological research in the field of chemistry.

Its clients include the pharmaceutical companies Almirall and Esteve, as well as large multinationals and national and international biotech companies. Over these years, it has also collaborated with prestigious institutions such as the University of Santiago, University of Barcelona, Harvard Medical School, and University of Cambridge.

In order to carry out its R&D&I projects, GalChimia has had the support of the Government of Galicia and the Galician Innovation Agency (Conecta Peme Program), the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Feder-Innterconecta and Innpacto Programs), and the European Union (H2020 and FP7 Programs).