Invest in bioprinting!
Bioprinting: a promising "entry point" for investments in the biotechnology market
NanoNewsNetThe global biotechnology market has recently shown unprecedented growth.
In 2013 alone, the NASDAQ Biotechnology index in this sector doubled. And in February of this year, it reached a historic high of 2,854.26 points. According to a study by QB Finance, a company specializing in the US and European stock markets, investments in the biotech sector in early 2013 allowed market participants to double their investments, and the prospect of continuing such a boom in the market attracts more and more new companies.
One of the most promising segments of the biotechnology market is 3D printing in general and bioprinting in particular, as the next evolutionary stage of development using more complex materials – based on living cells. The achievements of this fairly young field have attracted the attention of not only venture capital companies and investment funds, but also expert and analytical agencies, including 3D printing and bioprinting technology in the ratings of technologies that entail serious changes in various sectors of the economy. This was discussed at a recent discussion at the Higher School of Economics on the topic "Presentation of research results on 3D printing".
3D printing has already firmly entered not only various industries, but also the Russian economy as a whole. This was confirmed in his analysis of the new market by the expert of the Higher School of Marketing and Business Development of the Higher School of Economics, the head of the programs "Product Management of technological product" Boris Tokarev. Noting that already now the serious share of the private segment of consumers of products and services of technology is 14% with a forecast for significant annual growth.
Nikolay Bobrov, Managing Director of PICASO 3D, supplemented Boris Tokarev's speech with practical examples of the use of 3D printing in mechanical engineering, ship and aircraft construction and other areas, which allows investors to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Yulia Smirnova, Marketing Director of the 3D Bioprinting Solutions Biotechnological Research Laboratory, which develops its own bioprinting technology, spoke as an expert at the meeting. Her report "The evolution of 3D printing technology – a symbol of the real industrial revolution. A brief overview of 3D bioprinting technology" attracted the special attention of the discussion participants, allowing them to get acquainted not only with the analysis of the current state of the global 3D printing market in general, but also with the prospects for the development of such a direction as bioprinting in particular.
"Despite its relative youth – the bioprinting market as such emerged about ten years ago," Yulia Smirnova noted, "it has already attracted major players in the economy, food industry, medicine, veterinary medicine and pharmaceutical production."
The core of the market consists of about 55 organizations (this number reaches 80 taking into account around industry organizations) in the world. These are mainly government research organizations, universities and non-profit private organizations from the USA, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Singapore, China, Scotland, England, Germany, Holland, France, Japan. Russia is also creating a favorable environment for the development of this direction. The Government of the Russian Federation has formulated a list of priority scientific tasks that require the use of available resources to solve. Currently, there are more than 300 centers for the collective use of scientific equipment, as well as more than 90 unique scientific installations and complexes. Cellular and regenerative medicine. Transplantation of organs and tissues created on the basis of 3D cultivation technology is included in the list of priority, strategic tasks for the country. And last September, the first private Laboratory of biotechnological research opened in Moscow.
According to the expert opinion of Yulia Smirnova, "currently the market is in the phase of study, research and testing." The main capital of the market is, first of all, discoveries in such segments as nanotechnology, IT, engineering (evolution of printers), physics, biology, regenerative medicine, cellular technologists.
"The technology funding/financing market is still being formed," she noted, "However, it would be wrong to talk about the spontaneous emergence of this direction, since investors' interest in the industry arose almost ten years ago when the first products were introduced in this market."
"The appearance of the first actual results of research activities on the topic of 3D bioprinting portends a boom in the industry (and the opinions of most expert analysts agree on this) in the next decade," continued the marketing director of the Laboratory of Biotechnological Research "3D Bioprinting Solutions". The forecast, given by IDTechEx experts, focuses on the fact that in the next ten years, the investment market and the peak of grants in the field of 3D printing and bioprinting will grow not tens, but hundreds of times. Thus, the market of 3D printing technology products and services in the segment of only one skin by 2025, according to a moderate scenario predicted by an expert in the field of business research and consulting in the biopharmaceutical industry and medical technologies Roots Analysis, will amount to $4 billion."
Today, according to the information and analytical agency Cleandex, one of the most capacious markets in the world for products of "red" biotechnology is the Russian market. Its volume is, according to expert estimates, from 60 to 90 billion rubles per year, but with such a high capital intensity, demand satisfaction at the expense of domestic producers is only 5 percent. The largest companies with strategic thinking, developing according to the principle "The best way to know the future is to participate in its construction", are already striving to invest in the rapidly developing market of medicine and biotechnology. So the search giant Google, armed with the motto "Prolong human life", founded an independent company Calico, which will deal with "human health and well—being", specifically, the fight against aging and related diseases. One of the largest players in the international market of laboratory diagnostics, INVITRO has also invested in the development of personalized medicine by investing in the Laboratory of Biotechnological Research "3D Bioprinting Solutions".
"Today, the market requires new products that not only improve the quality of human life, but also personify all sectors of the economy for a specific consumer," Yulia Smirnova noted, "This also applies to such areas as regenerative medicine in general, and transplantology in particular. 3D Bioprinting Solutions is engaged in the development of its own 3D bioprinting technology platform, constantly generating new knowledge that in the future may allow us to close the acute issue of the shortage of donor organs." And bioprinting, if not a panacea, then it is a very real means to solve the problem of ensuring the ever-increasing demand in the market of donor organs due to the demographic component. Already in the fall of this year, our laboratory will present a bioprinter of its own design to the general public. And this will be the next step towards the further development of this direction."
According to the Marketing director of 3D Bioprinting Solutions, medical 3D printing and bioprinting are able to solve and are already solving many problems in healthcare and the biomedical cluster. Thus, the world's largest companies have already established 3D printing, for example, of hearing aids with individual characteristics according to the physiological structure of the customer's ear. Or the production of special orthopedic insoles, prostheses and implants.
"Global changes in the pharmaceutical market are predicted," says Yulia Smirnova, Marketing Director of 3D Bioprinting Solutions, "And these changes will affect all areas, from the production of personalized medicines to the use of biomicrochips based on human cells in the industry, which make it possible to conduct more accurate tests before bringing drugs to market, which reduces the cost of preclinical testing, time and risks".
Products from the field of 3D bioprinting in the area of drug testing, preclinical testing are products expected on the market in the short term.
Therefore, the "appetite" of investors who consider biotechnology as a good "entry point" into the international economy is not surprising. Visionaries and strategists leading the investment markets understand that the biotechnology market is rapidly generating new products, and promptly invest in a promising sector. After all, according to Yulia Smirnova, "you can print everything with the necessary technologies and materials. All it takes is time."
According to analytical agencies, by 2016, thanks to bioprinting, a revolutionary revolution in regenerative medicine will take place. 3D bioprinting will allow you to begin compensating for the increasing need for cartilage tissue. To date, the depth of demand in this market is $ 3.6 billion dollars. By 2018, as analysts predict, thanks to bioprinting, changes will affect the skin market. And finally, by 2025-2030, complex organs will appear on the market, including a kidney, included as a hyper-target by the scientific team of the 3D Bioprinting Solutions Laboratory.
The presentation of Yulia Smirnova's report can be viewed here.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.06.2014