Everything you want to know about biomedicine...

Biomedical technologies.
Online conference
To readers' questions BFM.ru The Executive Director of the cluster of biological and medical technologies of the Skolkovo Innovation Center is responsible
Igor Goryanin.1. Stanislav.

Igor, how much does the modern development of biotechnologies bring us closer to the possibility of creating individual medicines? Make your forecast when it may become possible?

The volume of the personalized medicine market is $400 million per year, with an average annual growth of 25%. Based on what we have today, the introduction of individual medicines will be possible in the next 10-15 years. But it must be borne in mind that the primary cost of such medicines will be only for the "chosen ones", just like computers used to be. Previously, they were available to units, but then, according to Mohr's law, prices began to decrease, the range expanded. As a result, everyone has it today.

2. Elena Grigorievna
Is the cluster interested in supporting pharmaceutical equipment manufacturing companies?

Skolkovo does not support companies that are engaged in production. This applies not only to the Cluster of Biomedical Technologies, but also to the rest. The task of the cluster is the development and implementation of new technologies, the search for innovative solutions in the treatment of diseases, including those that are considered incurable today. The only option for a cluster to support companies with production is if they have developments related to scaling.

3. Tatiana Petrovna
Igor, good afternoon. Do you consider Minister Golikova a good professional? Do you agree with Dr. Roshal, who has repeatedly stated that there is a shortage of competent organizers in the Ministry of Health? I would like to get clear answers: "yes" or "no".

I can say this: only professionals work with Dr. Roshal. Everywhere, in different areas, there are both good people and bad. And I myself know good specialists in the Ministry of Health, very good ones, with whom we have concluded agreements on Skolkovo. There are professionals in the field of organization, there are professionals in the field of medicine. There are no professionals, or rather there are few of them, in the field of modern organization as a whole in the country, not only in healthcare. They have received an MBA degree, but this does not mean that they have work experience in Russia or abroad. There is a shortage of personnel. Skolkovo attracts specialists with experience in the innovative economy. For example, Conan O Lehane, a former Irish minister who was involved in innovative economics, now works at Skolkovo with key partners. Such people, practitioners with experience, should be invited first of all.

4. Alexey Igorevich
Igor, the global trend in the field of healthcare financing is obvious: it is becoming increasingly difficult for the state to finance this area due to the increase in the number of elderly and chronically ill people, and it is trying to delegate powers to private insurers to the maximum. This is what happens in the USA
and Europe. Russia, on the other hand, is following a different path, increasing budget financing of healthcare. It is clear that soon there will no longer be enough money for this dramatically. What way out do you see for Russia?

There is not enough money in healthcare, it is necessary to increase the budget. I don't remember the exact value of the percentage increase, but this year there is an increase – the state increases the budget every year. But there won't be enough money anyway. Financing of scientific developments in the field of healthcare can occur at the level of industry and private investment, not directly related to medicine.

Secondly, you need to create schemes. For example, in the UK, every employee invests money in their healthcare and it turns out that not only the state provides support. Such a mechanism will be promising in Russia, when every employer pays money for medicines. We just need to study the experience of our foreign colleagues, I mean European, not American, and take the best that suits us. Social insurance for every worker – we really need to work on this issue.

5. Natalia
Hello, you founded the Edinburgh Center for Bioinformatics, which you headed from 2005 to 2010, and how are things with this direction in Russia? Interested in analyzing information on the human genome. What, where and who works on this issue?

I want to tell you about those who already work in Russia. Academician Scriabin, his strong group and himself, participated in the decoding of the human genome. Academician Kolchanov.

We have now funded two companies that are engaged in modeling for the pharmaceutical industry.

There are many scientists in Russia who know how to work with computer programs and Skolkovo supports these people. At the moment, we are creating a center that will directly support companies of this kind.

6. Victor
Igor, in what areas in the field of medicine, in your opinion, should we expect a breakthrough in the next 10-20 years? How would you react to the predictions that gene technologies are about to revolutionize medicine (I've been hearing these conversations for 7 years, but I still don't see any revolution)

A breakthrough can be expected in the field of drug development, for example, for the treatment of cancer, in the field of cloning, and even at the embryo level, where it is already possible to weed out the "bad" gene and thereby contribute to reducing cases of serious diseases. As for genetics, we should not talk about a sharp revolutionary breakthrough in this field.

A good example is when embryos are sorted by the presence of genes and see if there is a "bad" gene or not. And then the embryo is selected by genome. What does it give? Women will not get cancer because of a mutation of this gene.

The conversation lasts for seven years, maybe 10. But everything is moving. Evolution. And it is important not to expect results, but to constantly support all research.

7. Vlad
Igor, do you have some kind of standard for the number of patented medicines, say by 2013?

We have no standards, moreover, they can contribute to a return to the times of planning, stagnation, when real work was replaced by the pursuit of numbers. A patent is one of the components of a big business.

8. Elena
What is your attitude to human cloning? Will the ban on reproductive cloning be lifted?

Human cloning is no longer necessary to obtain so-called stem cells that can be used to grow new organs. I think it is more reasonable not to prohibit work with stem cells, but to regulate them. To use regenerative medicine in order to change obsolete parts – like in a car. Any equipment consists of spare parts and requires replacement. The person also requires updating. In principle, I think this is normal. Moreover, it is possible that new methods of regenerative medicine are a breakthrough that should be expected in the near future.

At Skolkovo we have participants who have developments in the field of treatment with stem cells from umbilical cord blood

9. Natalia
Igor, it is clear that the development of biomedical technologies raises new ethical issues. Are you satisfied with the legislation in force in Russia and don't you think it would be nice to limit the attempts of the church to invade purely scientific spheres? I mean the "Fundamentals of the Social Concept" of the Russian Orthodox Church, where we are talking, including bioethics

Most scientists are kind of atheists, they study molecular biology and believe only in science. I can say one thing: I believe that the church should help, accept innovations and interpret them within the framework of the Bible. Dialogue between the church and scientists is needed, and the church should take into account scientific achievements.

10. Oleg
Igor, which of the Russian pharmaceutical companies is a partner of the cluster? Does it bother you that they practically do not produce their own drugs and specialize in the production of generics?

It doesn't take a lot of intelligence to produce generics. And time, too. The Chinese, for example, actively produce them. The problem of drug production is that it takes 20 years to develop them, including time to release them to the market. But Russian companies do not have a twenty-year history. They have invested and are investing money in the development of drugs, so Russian developments will appear on the market in the near future.

11. Dmitry
Igor, when will the first medicine produced with the participation of your cluster appear in pharmacies? What kind of drug will it be? Will it be cheaper/more expensive than analogues? Thank you in advance for the answer.

Now we are entering the third stage with the drug Triazavirin, this is the development of the Ural Pharmaceutical Center, which is headed by Alexander Petrov. The second stage of testing was successful with the support of Skolkovo. If the third stage is successful, then we will have a cure for the flu next year. The next one, we hope, will be a cure for cancer.

12. Vasily
Igor, this is a question for you. Until now, there is no clear answer in the world to the question whether GM foods are safe for humans, Americans seem to eat them calmly, a wave of rejection of such products has just begun to decline in Europe. Will Skolkovo investigate the safety of genetically modified food in the long term?

We at Skolkovo do not investigate, we support companies and enterprises that carry out work in this direction. If there is an order from the state or other consumers, then we will support it. If there is no order, we will not support it accordingly. In principle, the question is complicated, but Americans eat, and this does not diminish their health. All this needs to be investigated, of course. When breeders cross fruit plants – pears, apples, oranges, tangerines – this process is considered natural, no one objects to it. There's a security problem here. Here we are launching rockets, and there are other challenges facing modern society, for example, information security, and everyone has started to think about this too. And then there is food-security. Humanity is growing, there are seven billion of us, and we all need to be fed. This can be achieved by the methods of selection of genetically modified products. For example, there is a company "Monsanto", which has modified corn, wheat and sells their seeds. The company is owned by Americans, and they take food-security issues seriously. And in Russia, you don't need to turn a blind eye to this, you need to create companies that produce similar products. But so far, Russia is lagging behind in this area.

13. Peter
Igor, explain about the production of what food products are we talking about in the section "industrial biotechnologies"? Don't you think that the use of such technologies should be resorted to only when the entire arsenal of traditional methods of increasing yields is fully developed? It is strange to try to introduce GM crops somewhere in the Bryansk region, where there are neither tractors nor sober tractor drivers...

Just answered this question. If there are GM seeds with high yields created by Russian companies in the Bryansk region, maybe tractor drivers in such quantities will not be needed. One sober tractor driver will be able to control the whole process, and the rest will be able to do something else.

14. Maria
Will the cluster involve employees of the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University, PBSU, the first Medical Institute and other institutes where professional biologists work in their work?

We are already attracting them. For example, we have a very fruitful cooperation with Academician Mikhail Petrovich Kirpichnikov. There are joint projects.

15. Nikita
Igor, are there any specific goals that the cluster is setting for itself now and about which it will be possible to clearly say by some date whether they have been achieved or not? For example, if the task is initially formulated as "the development of medicine", then in a year, regardless of real success, it will be possible to confidently say "we have developed medicine". And if the task (I exaggerate) is to invent a cure for cancer, then at any time you can give a clear status – whether the medicine has been invented or not. Are there such specific and achievable tasks among the already formulated ones? Do they have deadlines?

More than fifty companies have received the status of a participant, more than ten have received grants, but I would not like to translate the question into the plane of specific figures. I would like to see the deadlines in the horizon of five to ten years. Now we support companies, young guys who will create a medicine, bring it to the market – both Russian and foreign – transform it into a successful business, earn millions or billions. And real companies will definitely be worth billions. That's when they invest the money from this billion in a young resident company "Skolkovo", this will be an achievement. These will be millionaires and billionaires who have earned their money not on sale and resale, but on innovation.

16. Valentina Georgievna
What, in your opinion, is the biological bar of the age limit that a person can reach? What are the possibilities of biotechnologies in increasing this age?
And the second question is: how reasonable are attempts to prolong human life, if today most developed countries are already facing a crisis of population aging, which, in turn, is reflected in the crisis of the pension system. Simply put, today humanity has not found a way to feed an increasing number of pensioners. Won't the technical possibilities of life extension that biotechnologies will provide worsen this crisis?

Based on what is now known about the human genome in comparison with other organisms, it is clear that a person can potentially live much longer than now. Unless, of course, diseases are excluded. Taking into account those mechanisms, modern technologies that allow prolonging life, with the possibility of using stem cells, that is, replacing organs, I believe a person can potentially live for a very long time.

Your second question is whether humanity can make it so that every person can replace organs. This question is, in fact, very serious. Of course, at first it will be available to rich people, but over time, technology will become available to everyone.

Indeed, the problem exists and is returning – is it possible to feed everyone, so maintaining a balance between feeding and supporting is a real problem. We need to work on reducing production costs.

17. Veronica
Igor, do you know anything about the revolutionary rejuvenation tool developed by British scientists? It will be produced in the form of tablets and act on those layers of the skin where even the most expensive cream does not get. It contains a mixture of extracts that affect the human body at the genetic level, forcing it to produce collagen and estrogen, so necessary for skin elasticity.

Indeed, there are new effective drugs. Skolkovo currently does not support research in the field of cosmetics, but in the future we will not ignore this direction. I advise you not to get carried away with drugs with estrogen – a small dose of it in the body can lead to unpleasant consequences, for example, cancer. And do not forget that every medicine has side effects.

18. Nicholas
Are there plans to develop research in the innovation center related to the use of virtual reality technologies, for example, in the rehabilitation of neurological diseases?

Yes, of course, a very promising direction. Moreover, we support a company engaged in building a brain-computer interface that reads the EEG, and on its basis controls the prosthetic arm. Now this is a very promising direction. This has already been proven, and everything works. Moreover, recent research in the West shows that it is possible to organize feedback when the prosthetic arm feels surfaces and can send a signal to the brain. Such technologies are applicable for rehabilitation of disabled people.

Also in the West, computer psychologists have long been used for the rehabilitation of military and emergency workers who have returned from hot spots.

19. Mariana
Igor, please answer: which of the innovative equipment can be seen in the medical institutions of the capital?

Until recently, there was practically no modern equipment in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Now, thanks to the joint financing of the state and private investments, the level of provision of some medical institutions in the capitals has equaled the countries of Europe. In addition, it is planned that this will be the case throughout Russia.

20. Alex
1. "... In 1985 graduated from the MEPhI Master's degree..."... Dear Igor! And unless in 1985 the magistracy in the Soviet Union. have you been to universities? The fact that you (as well as graduates of MIPT, MAI, MSTU and a number of others.universities) studied for 5.5 years – does not mean that you completed a master's degree.
2. Does your cluster finance developments (technologies) related to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases?
3. Where (and how) do you recruit employees to the Skolkovo Foundation (there is no information about this on your website)?

1. In the West, this is called a master's degree, but in fact, education is much broader than in the West. In our country, the education system is different from the Western one. And five and a half years in Soviet universities is equivalent to a master's degree abroad.

2. Yes, we are currently supporting a project to develop an artificial valve.

3. Skolkovo is no different in recruitment from other organizations in Russia. As for attracting young professionals, we pin our hopes on students.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru
24.11.2011