The number of foreign investors participating in Catalan biotech companies has gone from 0 to 50, and over the past five years alone, the figure has increased tenfold, according to the latest Biocat report.

Company executives at Thrombotargets hit the ground running upon its 2005 founding in Barcelona, Spain. In two years, they have developed a pipeline of 11 hemostatics, anticoagulants, antiplatelets and fibrinolytics, all enabled by the company's proprietary high-throughput screening process, BioPlatformScreen. Thrombotargets is now preparing for clinical trials of its lead candidate, an antihemorrhagic human recombinant protein that has received FDA orphan drug status for two indications.

A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile group, "The Drug Delivery Road Gets Tougher," features profiles of ActoGeniX, Atacama Labs, Glide Pharma and Mimetic Solutions. Plus these Start-Ups Across Health Care: Light Dimensions, Relyspa, Stentys and Thrombotargets.