Barcelona is gradually consolidating its position as a hub for innovation in medicine and the life sciences. Now it’s the private sector that is firmly committed to remaining in the city. Sanofi, with its operations center in Gentilly (a municipality near Paris), announced yesterday the creation of a new international innovation center for artificial intelligence. The center will expand its current headquarters in Barcelona, ​​located in the Nou Barris district, and will create 300 highly specialized jobs. The facility will be completed this year and will join its other center working on digital transformation, the Global Innovation Center, inaugurated in 2016.

Investment in Barcelona

The presentation of this new Hub was attended yesterday by the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion, and Tourism, Jordi Valls, as well as by Miquel Sàmper, Minister of Business and Employment of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government). The Barcelona Global association, which brings together 279 research, training, and business institutions and companies, was also represented by its president, Ramon Agenjo. This commitment by the private sector is important as a hub for attracting foreign investment, international talent, and the most advanced science to the city. This scheme was launched a month ago, in a more specific way, by the Barcelona Investment Office: a program that is a firm commitment to attracting new foreign projects and functions as a collaborative body for guidance and advice between several institutions: Fira de Barcelona, the Metropolitan Area, Barcelona Global, the Zona Franca Consortium, the Catalan Government, the Provincial Council, and the Port of Barcelona. All this is intended to continue the rise in capital attraction figures for international companies, which increased by 39% in 2024 and generated 1-1.257 new jobs.

Innovation in Biomedicine

The new facilities of the multinational, a European leader in the pharmaceutical sector, will be another enormous opportunity for innovation in its sector. Sanofi-Aventis operates in more than 100 countries and comprises 80 industrial plants and more than 100.000 employees worldwide. In Spain, it has research and production offices in Barcelona, Riells i Viabrea, and Madrid, employing 1.450 people. The research it conducts encompasses the following more specialized areas: metabolic diseases, the central nervous system, oncology, cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, thrombosis, and vaccine production.

The new Hub will allow the in-depth implementation and application of innovation in data science (artificial intelligence) to research and treatments, more specifically known as the concept of Real-World Evidence (RWE). A term that refers to more advanced methods for processing multiple patient data and extracting valuable information to understand certain metabolic systems and conditions, and to find new remedies.

Sanofi Science Lab

As part of this announcement, the French company took the opportunity to present the Science Lab traveling exhibition (on immunology research), which will be held from today until April 26 at the Moll de la Barceloneta.