Biomedicine in Skolkovo: details
Five biomedical projects received 540 million rubles from the Skolkovo Foundation
RIA NewsIn 2010, 540 million rubles were allocated to five biomedical projects of Skolkovo, Roman Bolgarin, Director for Development and business Processes of the Biological and Medical Technologies cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation, told RIA Novosti.
Upon reaching the key points of the first stage of project implementation and targeted spending of funds by the end of 2011, they will receive another grant tranche of 420 million rubles, the Bulgarian noted.
"At the same time, in 2011 it is planned (in these five projects – ed.) to attract funds from co–investors (including project companies - ed.) in the amount of about 370 million rubles. In addition, this year the Biological and Medical Technologies cluster plans to allocate grants for another 20 new projects (in addition to those for which funding has already been allocated in 2010 – ed.)," he said.
The total amount of funding planned in 2010-2013 for cluster projects that received the first tranche of grants last year is 3.15 billion rubles. Of these funds, the share of financing by the Skolkovo Foundation is about 2 billion rubles (about 60%), the share of co–investors is 1.15 billion rubles (about 40%), the Bulgarian noted.
"It is noteworthy that up to 40% of the project funding goes to the purchase of equipment and bringing laboratory facilities, special communications to the required standards. Up to 30% of the funding goes to preclinical and clinical trials. From 20% to 30% goes directly to the remuneration of scientific specialists, including foreign scientists, postgraduates and interns involved in projects," the Bulgarian said.
He recalled that in biomedicine, the first stages of creating a drug or cellular technology, including target search, library screening, creation and optimization of "leads", preclinical trials are the most costly and high–risk.
"It is this, in fact, the research part, that is the object of support in the form of grants from the foundation. Modern laboratory and research equipment in the field of biomedicine, as well as consumables and laboratory animals are very expensive. For example, a "weighted average" properly equipped laboratory for molecular genetics "costs" 5-10 million dollars. At the same time, if we are talking about international quality standards GLP and GMP, the cost may increase significantly," the Bulgarian said.
The strategic goal of the Skolkovo biomedical cluster is to create an infrastructure ecosystem for innovations in the field of biomedical technologies. The cluster concept was presented to the world scientific community in early February 2011 at the first international biomedical cluster forum held in Moscow.
According to the concept, four main directions are defined in the cluster – biomedicine (genomic and postgenomic biomedical technologies, cellular technologies, complex diagnostic and treatment methods, medical equipment and materials), biopharmaceuticals (actually, medicines), systemic bioinformatics and industrial biotechnologies (as an interdisciplinary direction).
Projects on financingThe Cluster Development and Business Processes Director spoke about the most significant projects within the cluster supported by the Skolkovo Foundation.
The project of Pharma Bio LLC – "Synthetic Peptide Preparations" – is being implemented on the basis of the M.M. Shemyakin and Yu.A. Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The total cost of research activities for this system project will amount to 735 million rubles for 2010-2013. The product of the project will be five synthetic peptide drugs that have passed different stages of clinical trials, including for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, suppression of the development of Alzheimer's disease, treatment of cognitive disorders and the consequences of ischemic stroke – "timodepressin", "stemokin", "opilong", "sedatin", "C12-S".
"There is currently no industrial production of peptide medicines in Russia. The dependence on imports is 100%. Almost all imported analogues – peptide preparations present on the Russian market – are included in the list of vital medicines," the Bulgarian noted.
Another project is aimed at completing clinical trials of the antiviral drug Triazavirin, chemical synthesis of new compounds based on its analogues and evaluation of their antiviral effect. The basic development of the drug was carried out at the Yekaterinburg "I.Ya. Postovsky Institute of Organic Synthesis" of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The applicant for the project is Ural Biotechnology Center LLC. The total budget of the project until 2012 is 959 million rubles, the funds of the co–investor - 60%.
An example of the transfer to Russia of technologies created abroad can serve as a project for the development and implementation of a unique new method of cancer immunotherapy by the project company LLC "NewVak".
"As a former molecular biologist, I can say that the technology of the project is elegant and beautiful, if these terms can be applied in this case. In fact, a mechanism is proposed to qualitatively enhance the effectiveness of existing and future antitumor vaccines. This opens a new, breakthrough stage in the actual use of such vaccines in combination with the so–called adjuvant (a substance used to enhance the immune response when administered simultaneously with an immunogen – ed.)," the Bulgarian notes.
The total budget of the project until 2012 is 240 million rubles, the funds of the co–investor, the company Center of High Technologies "HimRar" - about 30%. Specialists from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University (USA) and the N.N.Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences are also involved in the development. The scientific director of the project, the author and developer of this innovative technology is one of the world's largest specialists in the field of cancer therapy, Professor Mikhail Sitkovsky (Institute of Inflammatory Processes and Tissue Protection of New England, USA).
As part of another project carried out by Innograd Pushchino, a methodology should be developed and implemented and equipment for the rapid analysis of aerogenic viral and bacterial agents present in the air should be created. The total budget of the project until 2012 is 420 million rubles. At the same time, the funds of the co-investor, a large Russian manufacturer of personal respiratory protection equipment, account for 50%.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.03.2011