40 years of leadership in the production of heparin
Bioibérica was founded in 1975 and its first product was heparin. 40 years later, this biotech company has become a world leader in the production of this active pharmaceutical ingredient, absolutely essential for human health.
1975: Bioibérica was born dedicated to the production of heparin
Joan Recio, Fast Track technician
In 1977, all of this, everything you can see, was fields. The plant was just the part of the raw heparin area, there were no fences, it was all vacant land.
Francisco González, Heparin Plant Manager
The full intestines used to arrive in barrels and we’d mince them here; there was a mincer in the plant part so that’s where we minced them. It was a case of taking the barrels with the trolley and dumping them. You look at it now and think, ‘God, it was tough!’
Bioiberica, 1984
Joan Recio
We used these vats behind us in the process. As you can see, they were wine vats, but with a direct vapour system to heat up the product.
Francisco González
It was a small company back in those days. There were 20-something of us working here and the company went through some pretty tough times... we never expected it to expand the way it later did.
Joan Bassa, Heparin Business Unit Director
It’s true that after a few years, management realised we could be doing a lot more with this active ingredient, so by 2007 or 2008 we were preparing to have an active ingredient with the weight it has today.
We aren't just selling a product but the idea of a product that saves lives and customers know it. They see it; they realise there’s something special about us and they also know that we are very serious about producing an injectable product of great importance to consumers and patients, which is who we are working for at the end of the day.
Carlos Raúl Aláez, head of R&D Heparin Business Unit
Research into heparin today is heavily focused on new applications. We are developing a series of projects in this area. For example, we are carrying out a malaria treatment project with heparin, a project on the functionalization of extracellular matrices for cultivating cells including chondrocytes, a project for the treatment of cystic fibrosis and a project for the treatment of anaemia associated with chronic inflammatory diseases.
Joan Bassa
All of us who work with heparin share an obsession, which is that we love this product.
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Since its foundation in 1975, Bioiberica has been focused on the production of heparin. The company understood that it was an active ingredient indispensable for human health and that it was important to be able to offer the maximum guarantees of safety and traceability.