Spain Expansion
Avanzanite Bioscience Expands into Spain, Appointing María Baquerizo as Country Manager
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Avanzanite Bioscience B.V. has officially entered Spain, appointing María Baquerizo López-Quectuy as Country Manager on June 9, 2026. The move follows the Dutch rare-disease distributor's €32 million Series A raise and its recent push into France, marking its second major country expansion in under three months. Business Wire reported the announcement.
Spain is the EU's fourth-largest economy, yet patients there wait an average of 23 months for orphan drug funding after European approval. An estimated 3 million people in Spain live with a rare disease. Avanzanite says it is here to close that gap.
A Fast-Moving Company Built to Fix Europe's Orphan Drug Gap
Avanzanite was founded in Amsterdam in November 2022 by Adam Plich and Anant Murthy. Their core argument: Europe's 30+ separate regulatory and pricing systems mean roughly 80% of orphan drug launches fail to meet commercial goals. Small biotechs simply cannot afford to build local infrastructure in every country. Avanzanite acts as a centralized commercial partner, handling market access so drug developers don't have to.
The company has moved fast. Within three years, it built a portfolio spanning 32 countries across the EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Q3 2025 revenues tripled year-on-year. MVM Partners led the €32 million Series A in November 2025. Board member Jack Tanaka called Avanzanite a "stand-out partner" in European biopharma.
Spain Finances Only 66% of Approved Orphan Drugs
Spain's National Health System currently funds 103 orphan drugs — just 66% of all EU-authorized options, according to Yahoo Finance UK. That figure improved from 58% in 2024, but Spain still trails Germany and France. The 23-month average wait from EU approval to local funding is the single biggest hurdle Avanzanite must clear.
The timing may help. Spain is drafting a new medicines law, and the 2026 EU Pharma Package aims to speed up Health Technology Assessments. Pharmaceutical R&D investment in Spain also hit a record €1.75 billion in 2025. CEO Adam Plich said Spain is "an essential part of the company's vision" and vowed that "no patient is forgotten."
María Baquerizo Brings a Harvard Pedigree to a Decentralized Market
Baquerizo López-Quectuy holds a Biology degree from Georgetown and a Doctorate in Dental Medicine from Harvard. She will be based in Madrid. Her job is not just commercial — it is relational. Spain's healthcare system is run partly by 17 Autonomous Communities, each with its own hospital procurement rules. A centralized Amsterdam model needs local expertise to navigate that reality.
Baquerizo put it plainly: "It's not that treatments for certain rare diseases don't exist, it's that nobody has taken on the commitment to bring them to Spain." Her focus will be ophthalmology, nephrology, and hematology — fields where some patients currently have zero approved therapeutic options in the country.
Avanzanite Eyes 10 Rare Disease Alliances by 2032
Spain is not the final stop. Plich has stated a goal of building 10 or more rare disease alliances by 2032. Analysts expect country-manager appointments in Italy and the UK to follow soon. The France entry came just three months before Spain, with Constance Sabbagh named as General Manager in March 2026.
Critics note that Avanzanite is a distributor, not a drug developer. Its brand depends entirely on the quality of its licensing pipeline — partners like Advicenne and SIFI own the science. But for 3 million rare-disease patients in Spain, who and how a therapy arrives matters far less than whether it arrives at all.
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