science

HIPRA

HIPRA is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand HIPRA rather than just read about it. In short: HIPRA, formally Laboratorios Hipra S.A., is a biotech pharmaceutical company headquartered in Amer, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 1971, it focuses on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of biological products for animal and human health.

Key takeaways

HIPRA belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect HIPRA to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of HIPRA from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

HIPRA, formally Laboratorios Hipra S.A., is a biotech pharmaceutical company headquartered in Amer, Catalonia, Spain. Founded in 1971, it focuses on the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of biological products for animal and human health. HIPRA has an international presence in 40 countries with its own subsidiaries, 3 research and development centres and 6 production sites located in Europe and America. It also maintains open distribution channels with more than 100 countries. The company operates three main business divisions. The animal health division, its core historical business, maintains a portfolio of over 100 vaccines with 25 more in development. The human health unit, started in 2020, focuses on COVID-19 vaccines and digestive health products. The biotech services division was introduced in 2025 and operates as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).

History HIPRA was founded in 1954 as a small veterinary laboratory in Madrid. The name is an acronym derived from the surnames of its creators, Hidalgo and Prado. In 1971, chemist and pharmacist Joan Nogareda Gifre acquired the company and refounded it two years later in Amer, Girona, maintaining the original name. During the 80s, the company continued to grow, reaching a €10 million turnover and a team of 80 employees in 1991. That same year, founder Joan Nogareda Gifre transferred leadership of the company to his children: David Nogareda Estivill, who serves as president, Maria del Mar Nogareda Estivill, as executive vice president, and Arnau Nogareda Estivill, who joined the company's board of directors. In the late 90s, Hipra started its international expansion by opening its first subsidiary in Uruguay in 1997. This trend continued through the 2000s, eventually reaching the current 40 subsidiaries, 3 research centres, and 6 manufacturing sites. In 2009 the company stopped manufacturing antibiotics to focus on vaccines. By 2012 the company had increased the revenue to €144 million and had approximately 800 employees. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, HIPRA created its human health division in 2020 and began developing a vaccine against COVID-19. The vaccine developed by HIPRA is an adjuvanted recombinant protein vaccine based on a receptor-binding domain (RBD) fusion heterodimer containing the alpha and beta variants of SARS-CoV-2. This vaccine was named Bimervax, and it was approved by the European Medicines Agency in March 30, 2023. The Catalan Government awarded HIPRA the Creu de Sant Jordi in June 2022 for "its involvement in the research of a new vaccine against the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus" and for its "commitment to the country's public health". In 2021, the human health division also acquired GoodGut, a biotechnological startup dedicated to the research and development of diagnostic tests for digestive diseases. In 2025, the company surpassed €500 million in revenue, with a net profit of €53.9 million, and employing more than 2,800 people. That same year, HIPRA started operating its contract development and manufacturing organization, the third division of the company.

Animal health HIPRA has developed more than 100 vaccines for different animal species, both production and companion animals, against a wide variety of biological targets. In addition to its Amer plant, the company has another plant in Brazil, in the Porto Alegre conurbation. It also has a university research centre in the United States. HIPRA's animal health products include vaccines, vaccination devices, integrated traceability services and diagnostic kits.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with HIPRA

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what HIPRA claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to HIPRA before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about HIPRA ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of HIPRA

In research: HIPRA appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses HIPRA in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: HIPRA is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Biotechnology companies of Spain, Pharmaceutical companies of Spain, Spanish company stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for HIPRA outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “HIPRA” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study HIPRA in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what HIPRA means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain HIPRA out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is HIPRA in simple terms?

Why does HIPRA matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study HIPRA?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on HIPRA.