Santiago de Compostela, 4 July 2022. XesGalicia, an investment body dependent on the Xunta de Galicia, will participate through its Galicia InnovaTech fund in a financing round for the biotechnology company Oncostellae—which also includes Inveready, Fitalent, and Julio Castro—via a participating loan of up to 500,000 euros.

Headquartered in Santiago de Compostela and founded in 2013 by a group of USC researchers led by Mabel Loza, alongside biotech entrepreneur Julio Castro, the company specializes in developing new pharmaceutical compounds for the treatment of inflamed bowels, colon cancer, and immunological diseases, focusing on the discovery of new compounds and their development from initial phases to proof-of-concept in patients.

It currently has two compounds in clinical development, and the funding will allow it to advance current trials and obtain the scientific data demanded by the industry. It is the first Galician company to advance a first-in-class drug to clinical trials, which are being conducted in several Spanish hospitals led from Galicia by Dr. Manuel Barreiro, a reference in ulcerative colitis, thus closing the complete cycle of the value chain down to the patient in Galicia.

With this operation, the Xunta continues to demonstrate its commitment to the biotechnology sector, a field for whose promotion the Galician Government relies on the Strategy for the Consolidation of the Galician Biotechnology Sector 2021-2025. This strategy will mobilize 660 million euros during this five-year period—double that of the previous period—to foster green and sustainable growth, enabling a 50% increase in the number of companies and the creation of more than 500 new qualified jobs linked to this activity.

Currently, Galicia boasts a competitive biotechnology sector at both the national and international levels, ranking as the second autonomous community in the creation of biotech companies.