The “P-BIO Pledge 4 COVID” initiative fosters participation of Portuguese biotech startups in the “Global Response to COVID-19” and is supported by the Portuguese Government. The initiative aims at helping startups participate in international emerging networks to tackle three key areas:
- Diagnostics – this area is key for the development of an effective vaccine. The Portuguese scientific system is already actively developing and implementing diagnostics and tests, including through the usage of nanotechnologies. As such, Portugal is in a particular position of excellence to contribute to the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)
- Therapeutics – this area is key for the production of critical components for antiviral treatments. The Portuguese industry is already actively developing these and Portugal is prepared to increase its production capacity to contribute towards the ACT Therapeutic Partnership
- Drug Development – regarding the global action for drug development, the Portuguese scientific community is prepared to join efforts with worldwide partners and, in a later stage, with the pharamceutical industry to develop international collaboration efforts to develop a vaccine
This worldwide cooperation platform, launched on the 24th April, attracted more than 7500 million euros to invest in the areas of diagnosis, therapeutics and drug development and counts with the collaboration of several international organisation across sectors.
David Braga Malta (Managing Partner of Magnify) moderated the roundtables of the “P-BIO Pledge 4 Covid) which took place on 13th and 19th May 2020. The two editions counted with the participation of the Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education (Manuel Heitor), the Portuguese Secretary of State for Digital Transition (André de Aragão de Azevedo), the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI), among many other support organisations of the innovation ecosystem, corporates and startups.
