Features of national biotechnology
Bioeconomics in the regional context
Why is the high-tech industry clearly stagnating in Russia
Evgenia A. Novosad, Head of the press service of the Society of Biotechnologists of Russia, especially for NG-Nauka.
For the first time in 10 years, the State Duma of the Russian Federation held parliamentary hearings on the development of biotechnology in Russia and the improvement of the legislative framework of the industry. So, what is the biotech industry today.
Russia's contribution to the global production of biotech products remained at the level of 0.2%. "Even India has overtaken us, reaching 2%. The contribution of other states is even more significant: the USA – 42%, the EU – 22%, China – 10% of the global biotechnology market, – said academician Valery Chereshnev, head of the Committee on Science and High Technologies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. – The European Union earned 1.5 trillion euros in bioeconomics in 2008 and employed 10% of the population in the industry, and the eternally world leader USA grabbed 51% of the biopharmaceutical industry market and received 96 billion dollars to the treasury."
Everyone is worried about the question, what will happen next? Most industry participants have pessimistic forecasts. Biotechnology, in comparison with two other areas of the innovative economy – information and nanotechnology – seems to be much more difficult to "raise" in Russia due to some national peculiarities. While two key departments for the development of the biotechnology industry – the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Health – are negotiating among themselves, the global bioeconomy has gone 25-30 years ahead.
The problem is complicated by one fundamental feature of biotechnologies: they are involved in all the most important industries, including medicine (the latest medicines, antibiotics, vaccines) and much more. Such an "octopus" is difficult to manage through the existing system of several departments. Industry experts logically insisted on creating a single coordinating management body, as it was in the past.
"20 years ago, the following figures were heard in this building: microbiological protein – 1.5 million tons, today – tons; amino acids – 20 thousand tons, today – kilograms; enzymes – 20 thousand tons, today – 8 tons," Yuri Kalinin, president of the Rosmedprom Association, said at the hearing. – It was a powerful industry created in a very short time. The Main Directorate of the Microbiological Industry was organized under the Government. It coordinated the use of biotechnologies in all other industries and ministries."
The need to develop a state "Strategy for the development of the biotechnology industry and bioindustry" was discussed back in 2005. Then it was proposed to take as a basis a ready–made program until 2015, which was prepared by the Society of Biotechnologists of Russia together with the Union of Enterprises of the Biotechnology Industry and representatives of three academies - the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Five years later, the situation was repeated with the difference that the scientific and business community developed a program for the government already until 2020. "Moreover, the document correlates with the Concept of socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2020," explained one of the main developers of the "public" strategy, President of the Society of Biotechnologists of Russia Raif Vasilov. The strategy will be presented in a finalized form in December of this year at the All-Russian meeting of employees of the biotechnology industry.
"All the recipes are known, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, as we like to do it," says Alexey Konov, Vice President of the Bioprocess Group of Companies. At the hearing, Konov managed to explain in three minutes what he explained to Minister Viktor Khristenko and Sergey Tsybu, director of the Department of Chemical and Technological Complex and Bioengineering Technologies of the Ministry of Industry and Trade a year ago. According to Konov, we have a chance to follow the Indian or Chinese development model, where large pharmaceutical companies grew first on the basis of the production of bioengineers, gradually "pumped up their muscles" and began to bring their own innovative products to the market. But if Russia wants to make a qualitative leap, then it is necessary to look for other mechanisms for the development of the innovation market in addition to these natural ones.
As the experience of France or Germany shows, a powerful impetus to the development of the market could be the introduction of a drug insurance system, when a consumer purchases prescription drugs and insurance companies pay for it. "At the same time, it is necessary to build an innovative company and fill its portfolio with products," Konov believes. – Quite quickly, you can create a global player that will compete with the big Western pharmaceutical industry. This will require quite a lot of costs, but then all the developments will not flow abroad. If at least something good is being done, the only way to "recapture" money is to sell your development to a major global player. If you create such a player in Russia, then the developments will remain here."
Almost every speaker spoke about the problem of import dependence. The volume of biotechnological products in Russia is 12.8 billion rubles. Of these, according to Valery Chereshnev, the volume of imports is 11.3 billion rubles. At the same time, 30% of imports are insulin supplies, 28% are vaccines. "The annual losses from the import of biotechnological vital medicines alone amount to at least 7 billion rubles," Alexey Konov cited the data.
The situation is similar in other industries. In the production of enzymes, the share of domestic industry accounts for 37%, the volume of imports is 490 million rubles. The volume of the market for the production of living microorganisms is 143 million rubles, of which imports are 130 million. According to Sergey Kryukov, General Director of Rosagrobioprom, the same problems exist in agriculture and veterinary medicine, there is an expansion of imported drugs, primarily vaccines.
Biotechnologists noted that the state needs clear and equal rules of the game in this market for all its participants. Now foreign companies are in better conditions compared to Russian ones. This includes not only equal admission of companies to participate in public procurement, but also equal conditions in terms of licensing and registration of medicines and substances.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru19.11.2009