A group of Spanish investigators from universities, healthcare sector, hospital centers and the pharmaceutical industry participated in the round table Biotechnology in pharmaceutical application to make their experimental work known. The objective was to analyze the scientific development of biotechnology in the pharmaceutical field, to describe the advances made and to design new strategies for the future. The round table was held on November 16-17, 1989 in Barcelona. Professor González-Duarte, from the Department of Genetics of the University of Barcelona, coordinated the publication of this event in Dr. Antonio Esteve’s Monograph number 10.