Biopremier was founded in late 2003, by Manuel Rodrigues and Mário Gadanho, at the time doing research in the University. The challenge was creating a biotech international company, specialized in developing new DNA tests. The pipeline of products would be marketed as services provided by the Laboratory in the Agri-Food sector, or as diagnostic kits in the clinical sector.
In the next two years the company started to provide some specialized services mainly to Universities and Institutes in Portugal and Europe, while the promoters were still working in Universities. Complementarily, during this period, started the development of new molecular biology services directed for the agri-food sector.
In 2006 the company was awarded with Innovation categories given by Governmental Agencies, namely, NEST homologation and IAPMEI Inovação status. During the same year, Biopremier obtained its first round of venture capital, joining to the share capital two venture capital firms, InovCapital (ex-PME Capital) and Biocant Ventures. In the following two years, additional capital increases were performed, subscribed by all shareholders, resulted in a share capital of 500.000 euros.
Consequence of the investment in 2006, in 2007 the company built its own laboratories, inside an Institute (ICAT) located in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. The laboratories were designed in order to allow that critical steps of the PCR procedure could be made in different laboratories, through a system of unidirectional flow of samples. This project received the approval for a governmental funding.
In 2008 the company received the approval of 2 R&D projects, one of them allowing the start of the R&D activities in the clinical sector. In the same year Biopremier was already providing services for Laboratories belonging to multinational groups and other food companies.
In 2009 the company finished several new tests directed for authentication of food species, and obtained the first big client in retail (Minipreço, Carrefour group), still working with the company until present. This year, Biopremier initiated the first collaborations with Hospitals and developed a platform for evaluation of microbial diversity. The company, in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, finished the development of software, property of Biopremier, which enables a much faster and accurate design and evaluation of DNA molecules, allowing the company to achieve a high rate of success in the primers and probes to test.
During 2010, Biopremier initiated the development of the first two diagnostic kits that will reach the market in beginning of 2013, directed for respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, and also began the first research experiments in the field of clinical virology. Just like since 2007, the company continued to growth in the revenues and expanding the number of clients, namely other laboratories, retail and food companies. Biopremier was granted with another R&D project, keeping this way, a constant investment in new products.
In January of 2011, Biopremier obtained a triple flexible scope Accreditation according to ISO Standard 17025:2005, for 25 molecular biology tests, all totally developed in-house, being some of them unique in Europe. The Accreditation obtained by Biopremier, is applicable to the Agri-Food, Environmental, Clinical and Veterinary sector, and has an international recognition. Consequently, in 2011 Biopremier will make all the efforts to start the internationalization of the company.
During this year, Biopremier will extend the Accreditation, through the last PCR test added, for the detection of Mycoplasmatales, regarding the clinical and pharmaceutical sectors. This year, the company started the first test directed mainly to the veterinary sector, for the detection of dermatophytes.
In June of 2011, the company attracted new international investors, which replaced one of the shareholders (InovCapital), and also raised funds for a new share capital increase. Also in June, Biopremier was awarded with the Trophy Challenge 2011, granted by Invest, a business magazine.
In autumn of 2011, Biopremier will be the first Portuguese biotech company to go Public, being listed in the Open Market in Frankfurt, Germany, achieving that way a direct contact with clients and investors outside Portugal, and benefiting from the public exposition and attention of the media.