The Basque biocompany Progenika picked up the prize in the “Business Innovation 2009” category at the Basque Enterprise Encounter, organised by EITB and Caja Laboral. The event, held on 15 June last at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and presided over by the Lehendakari (President of the Basque Government) Patxi López, is to acknowledge the work carried out by the most outstanding enterprises and entrepreneurs in the Basque Country.

At the latest edition, the jury for the event was composed of the 2008 prize-winners together with the presidents of the three employers’ associations: José María Vázquez Eguskiza (CEBEK), Juan José Azurmendi (SEA) and Eduardo Zubiaurre (ADEGI).

Progenika is a biotechnology company specialising in the field of personalised medicine and, more specifically, in developing DNA biochips aimed at diagnosis and prognosis of genetically complex human diseases and predicting response to therapy.

Founded in 2000, the Progenika Group currently has a workforce of over 145 persons, of whom 60% are doctors in different specialities, such as biochemistry, molecular biology and immunology. In addition to its development and production centre, located in the Bizkaia Technology Park, the company also has another site at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.A.), as well as a laboratory in the United Arab Emirates and sales and patents offices in Madrid and London.