The event has started with the welcome of Gastón García, deputy director of the ALBA Synchrotron. During the first session, Alejandro Sánchez – responsible of the ALBA Industrial Office – have explained the access mode for the industry as well as other type of collaborations such as the use of ALBA laboratories, knowledge transfer activities or mid and long term R+D+i projects. The one-stop shop service and the user orientation of the facility make ALBA an efficient partner for industry. "Our goal is helping companies to create knowledge that can apply to their products or innovative materials", says Miguel Ángel García Aranda, scientific director of ALBA.
Researchers from MSPD, CLAESS, XALOC, NCD and MISTRAL have shown the advantages that synchrotron light techniques offers to the pharmaceutical sector: fast data acquisition and shorter experiments, cost savings and, in the case of X-ray microscopy, the suppression of ethical conflicts because this technique can be a previous step before clinical essays with animals and persons.
The companies Enantia and Almirall, which have already collaborated with the ALBA Synchrotron, have commented their own experiences at the facility. Enantia, specialised in research solutions for other companies, have mentioned different examples. For Almirall, the analysis of polymorphic compounds – performed at ALBA – has increased their quality control, verifying and quantifying purity grades.
The discussion has continued with the roundtable where it was highlighted the celebration of the workshop and new forums between ALBA and the pharmaceutical companies were proposed. The challenge is to delete barriers and communicate that the available techniques in ALBA are accessible to industry, according to one of the responsible of Almirall.
Núria Valls, researcher at the Industrial Office of ALBA, declares that the result "has been very satisfactory. It has set the grounds for a future collaboration with those companies to whom we have not still work with. Besides, the event has made possible for the companies to know and see in first person the capacities of ALBA in the pharma sector".
Many questions and comments were raised during the roundtable. Next, the poster and networking session at the experimental hall of ALBA.
