Russian medical innovations through the eyes of venture investors
Venture investors are interested in Russian innovations in medicine
However, in Russia everything is still mostly limited to medical IT startups - NormaSahar, VitaPortal, Life Button, Doctor at Work, etc.
Everything related to practical developments and technologies is moving much slower. For example, a new method of treating malignant tumors based on stimulation of the patient's immune system, DendriVax, just became the winner of the "Technovation Cup" established by RVC. The second place in the same competition was awarded to the MD.Voice project, a mobile application for determining trends in changes in the vocal tract, which allows diagnosing throat diseases at an early stage.
Rusnano: one for allOne of the largest Russian investors in the field of medicine is Rusnano.
First of all, this organization is interested in projects offering funds to combat severe and chronic diseases. At the same time, developments should be at the stage when the effectiveness of the technology or drug has already been confirmed by clinical trials.
Over 5 years of work, Rusnano's approach to the selection of projects has changed: if at first the company considered incoming applications, now a special team is working on the search for promising developments. Rusnano Managing Director Olga Shpichko says that most of the projects are of foreign origin, most often American. Nevertheless, the company's current portfolio consists of 80% Russian companies.
But the Maxwell Biotech Venture Fund, specializing in investments in the medical sector and healthcare, demonstrates the opposite statistics: out of 9 projects, only 2 are Russian.
Not so long ago, Rusnano, together with the management company of venture funds Domain Associates, announced their intentions to invest $ 380 million each in pharmaceutical development, as well as production and further promotion. At the same time, $570 million will be used to finance 20 American companies developing drugs for the treatment of various diseases, as well as creating diagnostic equipment.
Investment LeadersThe United States remains the undisputed leader in attracting investments and developing biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals – in 2011, the volume of venture financing in these areas amounted to $7.5 billion, while in Russia this figure did not exceed $ 20 million.
Experts believe that the main advantages of America are huge investments in these industries both from the state and from individuals, as well as a decentralized management system of scientific organizations, a developed grant distribution structure and continuous work on the creation of new scientific parks.
Some EU countries and Japan have similar scientific infrastructure, while Russia is still very far away from them.
Russian medical innovations through the eyes of venture investorsAccording to the heads of domestic venture funds and the largest pharmaceutical companies, Russian developments are not too competitive yet, including in terms of such indicators as business expertise, patent protection issues, etc. The reason for this can be considered the destruction of the system of state support for the scientific industry, created in Soviet times.
Currently, it has to be practically created anew, which significantly slows down the process as a whole.
Another problem is the inability of Russian scientists to commercialize their developments. In addition, most developers still have a poor command of foreign languages, as a result of which their awareness of the situation on the world market is falling. This often leads to repeated development or work on projects that have already demonstrated their inefficiency.
At the same time, foreign investors recognize Russia's high scientific potential and a good academic base. But without the skills to transform ideas into a market product, this has a relatively low value.
All this leads to the fact that foreign investors avoided investing in Russian pharmaceutical developments – there are too few good results, the risks are too great. And most domestic venture capitalists still prefer to work with projects that bring quick profits, to which medicine and pharmaceutical do not relate in any way (it takes an average of 12 years and $ 1 billion to create and launch one drug).
However, recently the situation has begun to change: Russian scientists are gradually mastering the art of business and taking their first steps in the market. Foreign investors are well aware that the scientific component is the strong point of the Russian side. And Janssen Janssen, Himrar and the Skolkovo Foundation signed an agreement this year is a clear confirmation of this: as a result, Janssen's developments become available, and Himrar gets access to the necessary business competencies.
Protection at the state levelMarina Atarshchikova, Director of Research at Novartis Group of Companies in Russia, believes that Russia has good potential and prospects, provided that support for innovations in the medical field will increase, including from the state.
Russian scientists are in urgent need of establishing communications with foreign colleagues to exchange experience. And no less important issues remain the protection of intellectual property and remuneration – they are among the key points that stimulate the development of innovations.
Experts see several ways to improve the current situation. One of them is the creation of a special Center that accumulates all the necessary information for potential investors. The development of cooperation with scientific organizations with international pharmaceutical companies can also help improve the situation – for example, facilitate the financing of intermediate stages of various studies.
It is obvious that Russian innovations in the field of medicine face many challenges that need to be solved. And the sooner the forces of the state and private investors unite for this, the better the results will be.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru13.11.2012