The Basque company IkerChem has won the Emprendedor XXI (Entrepreneur XXI) award, sponsored by La Caixa and co-granted by the National Company for Innovation (ENISA) attached to the Ministry of Industry, with 372 companies all around Spain competing for the prize.

IkerChem is a company framed within the chemical-pharmaceutical sector specialised in the design and development of new chemical entities with high added value with therapeutic application in oncology. The company expects for two of the chemical entities so far developed to reach the clinical stage by next year.

Founded in 2005 as the spin-off of the Organic Chemistry Department of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), at present IkerChem has nine employees and counts on the scientific assessment of Fernando Cossío.

Ikerchem's participation in the Emprendedor XXI award at national level comes after winning the prize of the Basque phase of the contest last April.

The award was presented on 16 June in Barcelona and provides a €30,000 cash prize and the opportunity to take part in a programme at the University of Cambridge to undertake a study on strategic consultancy. The other two finalists were Kanteron and Bubok, located in Valencia and Madrid, respectively.