Progenika Inc, the US subsidiary of Progenika Group, has been granted a co-investment loan of nearly a million dollars (around 700,000 euros) by the Spanish company for development finance COFIDES, which manages the Fund for Overseas Investment Operations for Small and Medium-sized Companies (Fonpyme) for the internationalisation of companies that are intensively active in R&D and innovation.

The American subsidiary of the Progenika Group is based in Boston (Massachusetts), and was founded in 2007 to create and market products for in vitro molecular diagnosis, mainly in the detection and prevention of illnesses in transfusion medicine and cardiovascular diseases.

Progenika Inc. was awarded the American CLIA certificate to carry out genetic tests in 2008. The Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) is a certificate issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), established to ensure the precision, reliability and timeliness of test results wherever they are carried out.

Now that it has obtained this certificate, Progenika Inc. can carry out diagnostic tests at the client’s facilities without needing to send them to a laboratory. Progenika has therefore been able to start a new project, which involves setting up its own platforms, with its own employees, at the premises of clients such as doctors or insurance companies. The project will have an initial workforce of 10 and is expected to reach 100 employees by 2015.

In this project, which backs the international growth and expansion of the Progenika Group, the resources of Fonpyme make up 50% of the total investment. The Progenika Group has its centres of development and production in the Bizkaia Technology Park, where it also has its headquarters, and in Massachusetts (USA); it has a platform in the Arab Emirates, as well as commercial and intellectual property management offices in Madrid and London.