I will begin by pointing out that Sodena is celebrating an anniversary, as this public company owned by the Government of Navarre is celebrating 40 years since its foundation in 2024. It is therefore a good time to look back and analyze the great achievements made throughout this time, promoting initiatives and business projects for the health sector in Navarra. This work has had an impact on the levels of growth and development achieved by a regional community that currently leads the ranking of the highest quality of life among Spanish regions.
In this context, there are many opportunities and challenges for the industrial fabric of Navarra in this sector. These challenges and opportunities will be addressed thanks to an ecosystem that currently comprises more than 80 companies, employs 31,000 people, and has increased its turnover by 23% since 2016. These figures, as recently pointed out by Mikel Irujo, Minister of Industry and Ecological and Digital Business Transition of the Government of Navarra, place this sector as “the one that has experienced the highest growth so far this century in the region.”
These figures are largely the result of that pioneering decision taken in the last decades of the last century to commit to generic medicines, represented by Laboratorios Cinfa, one of the leading players in this field at national and international level today. Sodena played an important role in this initiative by providing financial support as a partner. Since then, all the actions, plans, measures, financial support, and decisions that have been taken have been aimed at consolidating an industry that, starting from practically nothing, is today undoubtedly a success story in terms of its development. It could even be taken as a model to be followed by many administrations and territories in our country.
At the regional level, I would like to highlight the recent approval, a first in Spain, of a Comprehensive Strategy for Personalized Medicine that integrates the fields of health, innovation, and economic development, as well as the commitment of the Navarra Health Cluster (NHC) which, through its 45 member entities, is one of the most dynamic biomedical clusters in Spain and aims to become a hub for industrial development in biomedicine, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, distribution, health technologies, digital health, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to the world of health, among other areas in which they are currently working.
However, although the steps taken are important, there is still much more that can be done. And there, at Sodena, as a company dependent on the Government of Navarra, we are clear that our priority is to continue strengthening our commitment to our well-established biosanitary sector, which has been established as a priority in the Sustainable Strategy for Smart Specialization (S4), which maintains Navarra’s commitment to being a rich, diverse, and cohesive territory.
It is difficult to find another example in which a public financial support company has managed to mobilize around 430 million euros for the health sector and revitalize it.
More specifically, Sodena has directly invested more than €40 million in Navarran companies in the sector, in addition to another €15 million contributed to specialized vertical funds operating in Europe and, therefore, also in Navarre.
This investment has enabled these companies to attract more than €250 million from third parties, supplemented by contributions of more than €115 million to the funds in which Sodena participates.
In addition, nine companies in our portfolio have benefited from €6 million directly from these funds for the development of their projects, with a total of 27 Navarran companies in the sector supported by Sodena.
All these figures would be less meaningful if we did not mention the creation of more than 1,300 jobs, an aggregate EBITDA of €12 million, and a fivefold increase in sales.
However, beyond these ‘big numbers’, the analysis would be incomplete if we did not take into account two ‘intangibles’ that act as drivers of the biohealth sector in Navarra. One of them is closely related to human resources training and talent generation, which is the responsibility of the three prestigious universities with high educational standards in the region. The other factor has to do with an industry that contributes 31% of the regional GDP, almost 13 points above the national average, and employs 72,000 people. These figures are a clear indication of a driving ‘ecosystem’ that is highly conducive to the generation and development of innovative and competitive businesses.
The combination of all these factors is what ultimately makes us feel optimistic and lays the foundations for Navarra to have a leading sector in the future of biohealth in Europe. In pursuit of this aspiration, Sodena will continue to devote all its energy and resources.
Iñaki Larraya
Managing Director of Sodena
