“When the previous Minister of Science in Innovation, Pedro Duque, came, we already said that we would continue to invest in the development of messenger RNA vaccines and this trial is underway,” said Carlos Genzor, partner of the company Certest Biotech, Receiving the visit of the President of Valentine, Javier Lambón, is the third visit to the facilities he has in the San Mateo de Gállego industrial estate and which are being expanded with an investment of more than 16 million euros.
“We’re working at a good pace”, he indicated, and “in a less visible part, a team of 50 people is already investigating the development of a new messenger RNA structure so that it stays in the blood for longer.” Live longer and get better is the introduction of the vaccine into the cell, which allows us to move closer to a more personalized medicine”. Similarly, he thanked the DGA for the support received from the DGA’s Department of Economy for innovation for the development of new treatments.
“We have had deviations due to the increase in material costs, but more or less we have been able to control it,” said the manager, who acknowledged that the work could go up to 18 million when completed. One of the buildings, he has indicated, “will be finished before the summer, and the other will not until next year, it is to be defined what will happen inside each part, as it will be based on business development”, he has Specified.
Despite the fact that their turnover fell by half last year (to 77 million in 2022) due to the end of the pandemic, Genzor admits they are happy as they are making a profit and double the turnover they had before Covid Overall the “significant push that it meant” and because of the huge demand for antigen tests and PCR.
With regard to exports, he said they continue at pre-pandemic levels, selling abroad “85% of the more than ten million PCR tests performed per year, mainly for those transmitted by mosquitoes such as Zika or Dengue”. To detect infectious diseases or viruses, as well as for respiratory or sexually transmitted diseases.
With a range of nearly a hundred different tests, or PCRs, “2022 has been a year of low production but a year of commitment to new projects such as the development of messenger RNA technology to fight cancer and other diseases.” “We needed suffocating space, which is why this expansion is going to give us more capacity,” Genzor admitted in the pandemic.
Certest Biotec’s business is “not manufacturing vaccines”, its CEO specified, but “partnering with a pharmaceutical company to develop new molecules and manufacture them, but the development period is long and may take 10 years”. could take up to 15 years”, it warned.
He also recalled the huge increase in equipment in the last decade. “When we arrived in San Mateo de Gallego in 2012 we were 35 people, in 2019 we grew to 154 and now we are 300”, he highlighted.
On his part, the President of Valentine, Javier Lambon, who has visited the expansion works of Certest Botec with Counselor Marta Gaston, has praised the trajectory of this company, which he is visiting for the third time and that “a Valentine business The most paradigmatic and exemplary of what is the future of the fabric of, because it brings together the talents of the founders who are from the land, it was born in CEEI Aragón, Center for Business and Innovation of the Community, it is State of the art technology and located in rural surroundings”.
And in this sense, he has said that he would like to “give to Cert Biotech in the health and pharmaceutical sector in San Mateo de Gallego what Inditex has done for the Plaza in terms of growth in logistics over 20 years”. It has also announced that as there is already a FP degree in Biotechnology at IES Corona de Aragón, another Dual FP will be created in the region at San Mateo de Gallego.
During Certest Biotec’s visit, the mayor of San Mateo de Gállego, José Manuel González, was also present, who acknowledged that Certest Biotec is the largest company that owns this polygon and that they occupy a third of the 38 hectares. and they just closed another 26,000m of land exchange so they can continue to grow in future expansions.
