Andrés Fernández Álvarez-Santullano, CEO of Zendal, joins the board of the Business Technology Cluster of Life Sciences with the aim of “strengthening Galicia’s leadership in areas such as biotechnology and health”
In 2024, Bioga increased its number of members by 19%, totaling 132 entities, whose annual turnover exceeds 2.8 billion euros and create 6,000 jobs, mostly highly qualified.
Santiago. 17/02/2025. Andrés Fernández Álvarez-Santullano, CEO of the Zendal Group, joined the Board of Directors of the Bioga Business Technology Cluster at the beginning of the year. He will serve from 2025 to 2026, with the aim of “strengthening Galicia’s leadership in areas such as biotechnology and health.” Zendal is a Galician-owned biopharmaceutical company specializing in the research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of vaccines and other high-value-added pharmaceutical products for human and animal health.
The new Board of Directors, elected at Bioga’s 24th Annual General Meeting, is led by its president, José Manuel LVilariño, Head of R&D at Hijos de Rivera. Carme Pampín, CEO of GalChimia, holds the vice-presidency. In addition to Andrés Fernández Álvarez-Santullano, the Bioga management team also includes Pablo Álvarez Freire of Mestrelab; Mónica Valladares of Lonza Biologics Porriño; and María Seoane of BFlow.
The Galician Life Sciences Business Technology Cluster (Bioga) currently has 132 member entities. In 2024, it added 21 new companies and institutions as members, representing an increase of almost 19% compared to the previous year. The annual revenue of Bioga’s member companies in 2023 exceeded €2.8 billion. Their activity accounts for 2.1% of Galicia’s GDP and generates 6,000 jobs, mostly highly skilled. The institutions and firms associated with Bioga invested approximately €130 million in R&D in 2023.
Andrés Fernández Álvarez-Santullano, after joining the Bioga Board of Directors, emphasized that Zendal and the Galician Life Sciences Business Technology Cluster “share the goal of building a leading, innovative, and sustainable biotechnology sector that drives the economic and social development of Galicia.” In his opinion, being part of the Bioga management team “will allow us to promote initiatives that strengthen Galicia’s leadership in strategic areas such as biotechnology and health.” Andrés Fernández also spoke about the strategy to be followed: “We will focus on the value of knowledge transfer and on fostering competitiveness through collaboration and innovation.” “I will work to ensure that the Bioga ecosystem becomes an even stronger benchmark in the biotechnology field, both within and beyond Galicia.”
For his part, José Manuel López Vilariño, president of Bioga, valued Zendal’s presence on the board of the organization he leads. “Having the CEO of a world-renowned biotechnology company on our Board of Directors represents a vote of confidence in Bioga’s project.” “We know that his contributions will enrich and strengthen our biotech ecosystem,” which has set itself the goal of “committing to internationalization” by 2025.
