The exhibition-fair "RosBioTech-2007" was held in Moscow
The VM columnist asked a member of its organizing committee, the president of the Russian Association of Manufacturers and Suppliers of Medicines, Medical Devices and Equipment, Professor Yuri Kalinin, about the main results of this event.
– Yuri Tikhonovich, has such a scientific direction as biotechnology survived in Russia, and if so, what state is it in now?
– Of course, it survived. To talk about the complete death of domestic biotechnology would be a clear exaggeration. But now, in terms of development, it is inferior even to the Soviet years, not to mention competition with foreign colleagues. Biotechnology is a scientific field that, perhaps, has suffered more than others from the structural transfer of the national economy to market rails. Judge for yourself: in 1990, the USSR had the second bioindustry in the world after the USA and not only fully satisfied its needs, but also exported the products of biofactories to 80 countries of the world. Today, the degree of saturation of the domestic biotechnology market in pharmaceuticals is 51%, in the production of food and feed additives – 40%, and in other knowledge–intensive sectors of industry – even less.
– And why? What is the reason?
– The main problem is the loss of the industrial base. The experimental production lines created back in Soviet times were outdated, and there was nothing to build new ones for. The most disastrous in this sense was the period from 1992 to 1998, when biotechnological production in the country decreased fourfold. As a result, the potential of the all-Russian biotechnology market is now estimated at 90100 billion rubles, but it is only half closed with ready-made offers. To better illustrate the decline that has happened over a decade and a half, I will turn to relative indicators: at the end of the Soviet era, the share of domestic bioproducts in the world market reached 5%, and now it is only 0.25%.
– Probably, the competitors have not been asleep all this time…
- of course. Last year, about 60 billion rubles worth of biotechnological products were sold in Russia, but only every sixth ruble of this money supply went to domestic producers. The most alarming situation has developed in the pharmaceutical industry, which in recent years has outstripped the food industry in terms of the "biotechnological shaft". The nomenclature of competitive biotechnological products in the Russian pharmaceutical industry is much narrower than the world and is being exhausted by immunobiological drugs, enzymes and erythropoietin. We are much inferior to foreign companies in such a strategic issue as the development of modern vaccines, including polyvalent (that is, protecting the human body from several infectious pathogens at the same time). Thus, 90% of the hepatitis B vaccine used in Russia is manufactured in India and Cuba, although we have our own technology for its production. As a result, for example, in the so-called program of additional drug provision, the share of domestic drugs has already decreased to 10%! In the past decade, when medicines were much cheaper, at the national level, this problem may not have seemed so dangerous: just think, $ 2 billion, we will buy at the expense of energy imports! But next year, the price of the issue is already $ 20-25 billion, and these are serious figures for the federal budget, you can't just close them. The most annoying thing is that the current situation absolutely does not meet the capabilities of our science! So, Russia has its own technology for the production of genetically engineered insulin. Lines have been created where products with a total volume of 10% of the country's needs are produced, and only $ 130 million is needed to eliminate dependence on imports of such an important drug. Nevertheless, although we spend about $ 200 million a year on its purchase, this problem has not yet been solved. However, recently there have been hopes that the construction of the plant will be started in the near future. There are other good examples. Alpha and gamma interferons are produced at three experimental plants, providing a third of the national demand. But these cases, unfortunately, are exceptions to the rule. The picture is similar in agriculture. At the end of the 1980s, our biotechnologies fully provided the feed base of animal husbandry and poultry farming with protein. And today we import more than 70% of these products. That's why we tried to "rock" our industry with the help of such a form of communication as a technology fair.
– And what did RosBioTech-2007 give?
– It was the first attempt in the country to bring together developers of biological technologies and entrepreneurs at the same table within the framework of the fair. It is difficult to say what the result will be. I hope that negotiations on the most interesting areas will continue. But it is already clear: such events should be held annually. And we will gather in the near future to summarize the results and determine the prospects for such forums.
Our expert advisor of Vneshtorgbank, Doctor of Economics Oleg OCHIN, comments:
– How to marry a business with biotechnology? After all, until serious business comes to this branch of human knowledge, it will remain nothing more than a general illustration of the professional competence of our scientists. When we were in the UK as part of a delegation of officials and entrepreneurs close to science, I was constantly interested in: how do you manage to attract businessmen to finance research on mutually beneficial terms? And an English colleague shared with me an interesting discovery, which he called the law of three eights. Namely: each scientific project needs to be conducted for at least 8 years, 8 million pounds is required to create one drug, and at the same time only every eighth development has a chance to enter the market as a commercially successful product. (An obvious mistake: a much larger amount is generally accepted, $ 800 million for one drug that has reached the market – VM.)
If this model is transferred to our conditions – of course, with some amendments (for example, a lot can still be done cheaper in Russia than in England, although we are unlikely to be able to implement a serious biotechnological project for less than $ 10 million), we will understand the full degree of complexity of investment scientific financing. A simple economic calculation shows that every venture fund that wants to "raise" science needs at least $ 100 million to work successfully. But only the creation of funds and the accumulation of funds in them can not do.
Perhaps we will be able to organize a promising acquaintance of science and business in the future at such exhibitions and fairs as RosBioTech-2007. But acquaintance is followed by a long process of lapping and mutual habituation, and special people – project managers are needed to regulate it. After all, developers and businessmen sometimes speak different languages, and project management requires special knowledge. Unfortunately, project managers for venture areas are not being trained anywhere in Russia yet. But that's not all: having "married" scientists with business structures, at any moment you need to be ready for a civilized "divorce" - a process also regulated by a certain calculated structure that will help you get through this painful procedure with minimal losses. That's why fairs like ours are needed to build such a mechanism.
Dmitry Anokhin, "Evening Moscow", 11.01.2008
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru11.01.2008