BIA Separations receives highest national award for innovations

1Dec2020

We have received the highest national award for innovative achievements: a gold innovation award given by the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Our winning achievement: development of the Zolgensma gene therapy purification process for the treatment of patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and a clinical diagnosis of SMA Type 1 or SMA patients with up to three copies of the SMN2 gene.

The national committee members handed out 11 gold awards for innovations 2020. There were 43 national candidates, chosen among 221 candidates, who competed at the regional level.

“We wish to preserve many more lives”
Matej Penca, the company’s procurator, received the award on the company’s behalf, and underlined that BIA Separations has believed in the incredible potential of gene therapy since the very beginning: “We have recognised a perspective market niche in the development of methods for drug purification. From 1998 and until 2018, we have been allocating half of all our sales revenue to developing this area. The unshakable trust in our chosen path has transferred to our staff’s innovation-oriented culture. I extend my deepest respect to all our employees, the top experts of BIA Separations, who have believed in this vision and made it through the deep waters with us. Together, we have made the company stand among the best in the world in the past few years.“

Aleš Štrancar, the company’s director, took this opportunity to invite new workers to join the mission of saving lives: “In the field of smart filter technology, our innovative biochemical technological process that uses chromatographic monolithic columns from the CIMmultus™ line currently makes us the best in the world. With our affirmed use of gene therapy, we are part of a major revolution in the field of pharmacy. However, we will not stop our development here, quite the opposite. We will invite a hundred new employees to join our ranks in the following years. There are many more lives we wish to save.”

 About the award

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia Awards for the best innovations at national level represent the highest national recognition of Slovenian companies and other organizations’ innovative achievements and thus promote innovation in Slovenia. The Chamber in cooperation with regional chambers announces an annual competition and rewards innovations. In the past 17 years, more than 10,200 innovators and over 2,980 innovations in Slovenia were recognized for their achievements. There were 142 gold awards given at national level, and the Chamber’s awards for innovation are renown in Slovenia and across the world. A national committee assesses the chosen best innovations from all 13 regions and awards the Chamber’s prize for innovations at the national level.