Biocluster start-up
Galina Borisova, "Business Petersburg", 29.09.2010
St. Petersburg business and science still unite to participate in the second RUSNANO competition for the creation of a nanotechnology center in our region.
The acceptance of applications ends in October 2010 and, according to DP, one of the investors working on the creation of the application is the Eternal Youth Foundation, part of the Empire holding by Andrey Fomenko.
The key focus for the foundation is medical and biotechnologies that contribute to active longevity. It is noteworthy that "DP" was the first to announce the plans of "Empire" to create a nanocenter ("It is necessary in NANO", "DP" dated December 15, 2008).
DP conducted a survey on how the prospects for the appearance of a biocluster in St. Petersburg include its potential participants, as well as companies that have already entered the existing pharmaceutical cluster.
Lada Fomenko, President of the Eternal Youth Foundation:
The project of the nanotechnology center is really at the stage of writing an application for participation in the RUSNANO competition. While Andrey Fomenko is the main investor, however, it is difficult to talk about specific amounts today, since our fund is currently working to attract new investment partners to it.
If the application for the creation of the nanocenter passes the competition and is accepted, then perhaps the investment agreement will be signed in February 2011. The center will include such scientific structures as: the A. F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, the Alferov Foundation, the I. V. Grebenshchikov Institute of Silicate Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Various companies will also be involved, which will bring their startups to the nanocenter and implement them on the equipment of the created site.
Sergey Bagnenko, Director of the I. I. Dzhanilidze St. Petersburg Ambulance:
The task of the state in forming a cluster is to attract existing scientific and production facilities that are underutilized, it is necessary to use academic university science and research institutes, let them use their achievements.
In order for developments in the field of biotechnology to enter the market, a supra-institute level is needed. Previously, these were the state authorities of the USSR, but today there is no structure that would be responsible for this process. In order for the institute's developments to find investors sooner, interdepartmental commissions are needed under the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Someone has to extract information from institutions and sell it to the market, for this purpose clusters are created.
Alexander Olkhovsky, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg:
Now the fragmented mass of producers will not be able to survive, the more self-regulating organizations of clusters, the more coordination there will be in relations with the authorities, the better. We support the self-organization of the business community. One of the tasks of the authorities in creating clusters is to attract investors. But an investor is needed when there is already a certain project, how to implement this idea – it is pointless to look for an investor. There is money now, but there are no ideas in which to invest it. How else can the government help business?
The government implements its policy through targeted programs. There are a number of programs related to assistance in leasing, repayment of part of the interest rate on the loan.
Now we are amending the law on tax benefits of St. Petersburg, where manufacturers of high-tech modern products have certain tax breaks. If the business believes that we are not doing enough, we are happy to hear suggestions.
Zakhar Golant, Deputy Chairman of the Health Committee of St. Petersburg:
In recent years, the state has invested a lot in the development of the healthcare system market, and now it continues to do so: the system of compulsory medical insurance is changing, social programs for the purchase of medicines have been increased. It is beneficial for the state when funds are returned in the form of taxes, in the form of creating new jobs, and not just spent on imported products. In April, the concept of the pharmaceutical cluster development was adopted in the form of a decree of the Government of St. Petersburg. There, the cluster is designated as a group of geographically localized objects.
The cluster assumes localization as a whole in St. Petersburg, a specific place is not taken and it is said that a cluster is being created there. It is pointless to build a cluster in the forest, because many infrastructure elements will be missing. For example, four pharmaceutical cluster production facilities will be located in the Pushkinskaya industrial zone, but all other elements of the cluster infrastructure are located elsewhere.
Peter Rodionov, Director of Geropharm LLC:
In order for the pharmaceutical cluster to work effectively, it needs to include both production structures and research laboratories, where the development of innovative drugs will be carried out directly, and scientific institutes, specialized educational institutions, medical clinics. It is convenient to carry out cooperation between these structures if they are geographically connected. In principle, cooperation between pharmaceutical companies belonging to the cluster is also possible.
The cluster has not been formed yet, while the companies have declared their readiness and desire to enter the cluster. There is a workflow that is possible only within the cluster. Without him, we would have spent much more time on the implementation of our project, first of all, on various kinds of coordination – from this point of view, our region is perhaps one of the most difficult. We don't have a single problem that hasn't been solved yet.
Oleg Granstrem, Director of CJSC "Farm-Holding":
Many projects that currently exist within the walls of scientific institutes cannot be implemented for many reasons: there is a lack of high-quality domestic equipment and reagents, projects in the field of biotechnology need specialists, most of whom have gone abroad.
There are objective things because of which, no matter how well you administer at the organizational level, it will not work effectively, so here the situation can be corrected only gradually, including by combining into clusters.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru30.09.2010