Eurasian Russian Biotechnology
Bioindustry in Russia is emerging from the crisisThe global bioindustry has been developing for about 40 years since the early 1970s.
During this time, the Russian industry experienced a rise and leadership in the first half, and a fall and complete outsidership in the second. The global market of biotechnological products has already reached 160 billion dollars a year, Russia's share in it is only about 1%. There are about 2000 biotech enterprises in the USA, 600 in China, 300 in India, and 50 in Russia.
However, the "EurasiaBio-2010", held on April 12-15 in Moscow, demonstrated that Russia has promising scientific developments, business development opportunities, and huge potential. "The main fundamental achievement achieved at EurasiaBio is that Russia has declared itself at the highest level as a country that develops biotechnologies and bioindustry, and demonstrated this to the world community. This seriously showed what we have already done and are going to do," commented the chief organizer of the congress, Raif Vasilov, President of the Ovchinnikov Society of Biotechnologists of Russia.
Strategy and PlatformsThe key decision was announced at the opening of EurasiaBio by Alexander Khlunov, Director of the Department of Science, High Technologies and Education of the Government of the Russian Federation.
He noted that there is "an absolute need to develop a separate bioeconomics program for Russia" and "all efforts to create this program will be supported by the Government." Its status will be determined in the future. In this regard, the holding of the "EurasiaBio" was an important tool. At a special meeting with the participation of international experts, a draft Strategy for the development of the Bioindustry in the Russian Federation until 2020, prepared by the Union of Enterprises of the Biotechnology Industry of Russia, was discussed here. In the near future, the program will be finalized taking into account international experience and sent for consideration to the Government of the Russian Federation.
Following the example of Europe, Technological Platforms have been created in Russia in the most important areas of biotechnology: "Industrial biotechnology", "Food for life", "Plants for the future", "Forestry", "Fisheries" and aquaculture", "Animal health". Alexander Khlunov stressed the exceptional importance of these platforms. He noted that the platforms are a new strategy, which is expected to have a great future, and which can cover all areas – healthcare, food security, agriculture and others. This strategy is the accumulation of scientific and technological developments, effective planning, management, training, mobilization of human and financial resources with the ultimate goal of producing innovative products. In his speech, A. Khlunov said: "Our task is to build a Roadmap for each such Technological Platform, which would allow us to determine, with reference to performers, where to move in one direction or another." Presentations of Russian and European Technology Platforms in the field of biotechnology were held within the framework of the EurasiaBio Congress. In addition, an Information Day on the participation of Russian organizations in the 7th EU Framework Program was held for the Forum participants. Russian participants were trained and advised on legal and financial issues and the search for foreign partners. At the round tables, representatives of the European Commission, European and Russian technology platforms discussed the priorities of international cooperation in the field of biotechnology.
The holding of the "EurasiaBio" in Moscow clearly showed that the "ice age" of the Russian bioindustry is still nearing its logical conclusion. Positions have been strengthened on all fronts. Since 2003, the expert community has absolutely consolidated and has become the locomotive of the revival of the industry. More and more regions are "betting" on the boindustry. At the congress, bioregions – Tatarstan and Chuvashia presented their long–term programs and shared their experience with other subjects of the Russian Federation that are actively developing in the same direction - Karelia, Kirov Region, which created the biocluster, Penza, Voronezh regions and others.
Unite Europe and AsiaInternational cooperation has been significantly strengthened.
Within the framework of "EurasiaBio", the Eurasian Biotechnology Association – EABF was established. The founders of EABF were Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, India, Mongolia, Austria, China and Slovenia, Finland expressed their intentions to join. In the future, the union will expand through the accession of other countries of the Eurasian region, including the post-Soviet space. The Association is necessary to promote the sustainable development of bioeconomics and cooperation in biotechnology in the Eurasian geopolitical area and beyond. EABF will greatly facilitate the dialogue between scientists, industry, regulatory and government authorities, and business representatives engaged in the bioindustry.
Scientific and technological cooperation between Russia and the European Union is successfully developing within the framework of the 7th EU Framework Program (7RP) in the direction of "Biotechnology, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food", which is designed for 2007-2013. About 2 billion euros are allocated for the implementation of projects within the framework of the knowledge-based bioeconomy concept in the 7th Framework Program. It should be noted that "Healthcare" and "Biotechnology" are on the 1st and 2nd places in the list of thematic priorities of the 7th EU Framework Program.
Russia participates in 11 projects of the 7th EU Framework Program in the field of biotechnology. At EurasiaBio, it was announced that Russia ranks 1st in terms of the number of applications submitted in 2010 (58) among the countries of North and South America (21), Africa, Asia and Australia. Since 2007, joint Russian and EU competitions have been held on the topic: "Production of vaccine proteins in plants" and "Molecular modeling for rational design of industrial enzymes".
During her visit, Maiwe Rute, Head of the European Commission's Directorate for Biotechnology, held talks with Inna Bilenkina, head of Rosnauki, who is also co-chair of the Russia-EU Working Group on Biotechnology. In addition, bilateral negotiations were held at the Ministry of Agriculture, with the heads of Federal Agencies for Fisheries and Forestry.
Catching up with IndiaAgreements on strategic partnership with India have been reached within the framework of EurasiaBio.
According to the Secretary General of the Federation of Asian Biotechnological Associations, Dr. Bhim Bazhazh, our countries can become strategic partners in "green" biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals, bionanotechnology and stem cells, vaccines, "contract research", venture investment on both sides.
On the final day of the Congress, an agreement was signed on the creation of a Russian-Indian Internet portal with a business partnership system. As Dr. Bazhazh explained, the entire experience of cooperation between Russia and India in biotechnology, which has been going on since 1964, will be collected and analyzed at this site, and future business projects will be identified. For example, an agreement was reached on the creation of a joint agro-bio-incubator. The partners will be JSC Rosagrobioprom and the world's largest agricultural center, the Icrisat Institute. The tasks of the center are the transfer and commercialization of scientific developments, both Russian and Indian, for the modernization of agriculture in both countries.
At the moment, India produces 2/3 of all vaccines in the world. Over the past 5 years, the volume of the Indian biondustry market has grown by 30% and currently its turnover is $ 2.6 billion. It is planned that in 2-3 years it will reach 5 billion. The Government of India allocates about 11%, the rest is investments by companies, banks and other commercial structures.
"You should be proud of such a summit, and you have no competitors, because you have very, very convincingly emphasized at all levels that Russia is the richest country in the world in forestry and agriculture, and this is something that you can use to develop the bioindustry and offer to the world," he said at the Congress. Position Christian Patterman, Advisor to the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, former head of the Directorate for Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food of the European Commission. In his opinion, Russia needs to concentrate on clusters and modernize agronomy, as is happening in Germany, where the Government actively encourages this direction. About 200 biotech companies, which are world leaders, are concentrated in North Rhine-Westphalia. "For the next 5 years, we will invest about 40 million euros in agro-clusters. You can also achieve such results at the local level," Patterman noted, "35% of goods in Germany are made on the basis of biotechnology, and this fact convinces us to invest in us."
A new medicine at a new priceAs Evraziyabio has shown, the investment climate of the Russian bioindustry has "warmed up".
Industry experts called it unprecedented that Stephen Burrill, a leading investor in the global bioindustry, came to the congress. The "financial guru" told at the EurasiaBio press conference that he has already invested about $ 1 billion in biotech companies in 90 countries and is now negotiating the development of this business in Russia. "I face various difficulties in every country, and I have no prejudices for investing in Russia," Stephen said.
A positive trend was also noted by the leading financiers of Russia and the world, who organized a brainstorming session on the revival of the industry. "Is it possible to build an analogue of the American leading company Genentech in Russia? – experts asked the question 3 years ago. And the answer was no. Now the situation is not so clear. "By 2010, we must admit that we probably need to build Biotech version 2.0," said Alexey Konov, investment director of the Bioprocess Capital Ventures venture fund, "and today there are subjective factors for this – state will, financial instruments, RVC and its funds, RUSNANO with a huge administrative resource Although there are still a lot of "serious holes" that need to be closed, in his opinion and other experts, it remains only to find a window of opportunity for today's Russia and identify the right tools.
The myth that the development of a new drug costs a billion dollars was dispelled by Andrey Ivashchenko, chairman of the Board of Directors of the ChemRar Center. "Half of the announced billion is access to the American market, the ticket price," Ivashchenko believes. In fact, the cost of developing a new drug is from 16 to 60 million dollars. This means that domestic manufacturers have a chance to build up "muscle mass" and fill our market with their high-quality new medicines. "Our pharmaceutical market should grow to $60 billion by 2020, mainly due to innovative drugs, so the task to replace half of imports means that the domestic industry should have 60% of protected patents in its portfolio. This task now looks more realistic," explains Ivashchenko. – Another, still unresolved question is who will finance even these 16-60 million dollars. In particular, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and its head Viktor Khristenko are actively working on this issue. We hope that this serious problem will be resolved."
Within the framework of "EurasiaBio", the results of the biotechnology journalist competition were summed up. Almost 90 applications from 15 cities of Russia were received for the 2009 publication contest. Its results can be found on the websites www.biorosinfo.ru , www.eurasiabio.ru .
The information was prepared by Evgenia Novosad, the press secretary of the OBR.
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