Commercialization of biotech
Expert: scientists come up with something that business does not need
Oksana Baranova, Pharmaceutical Bulletin
On February 20, during the international congress "Biotechnology: state and prospects of Development", a round table "Interaction of science and business in key areas of biotechnology and biomedicine was held. Commercialization of domestic innovative developments".
The discussion was attended by representatives of research organizations, Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers and clusters, industry associations, venture funds.
According to analysts, the global biotechnology market will reach $600 billion by 2020.
The Russian state has high hopes for the biomedical technology sector. According to the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov, biotechnology is an important component of the transition of the medical industry to an innovative model.
"The sector is becoming attractive to investors, those investments that go into pharmaceuticals today, first of all go into biopharmaceuticals," the ARFP CEO stressed Viktor Dmitriev, opening the round table meeting.
However, business representatives, without imploring the importance of various state programs aimed at supporting the development of innovations, pointed to a number of problems hindering the industry. One of them concerns pricing.
According to Mikhail Nekrasov, CEO of Nanolek, if the pricing system is not revised, the development of innovations will slow down.
"We are stuck in the past with prices," he explained.
According to Alexey Torgov, Deputy General Director of the Biocad company, despite the active support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the development of export potential is complicated due to the peculiarities of Russian regulation. In addition, according to the expert, the support of the Ministry of Health is weakly felt.
In addition to the financial difficulties faced by innovators, there are also problems when interacting with scientific organizations.
"Not all developments reach the end user. Domestic science does not fully meet the needs of manufacturers," explained the head of the Department of R&D and Production Management of the company "Natsibio" Mikhail Karbyshev.
For the successful commercialization of domestic developments, it is necessary that science and business speak the same language, according to the participants of the round table. Successful examples of such interaction, of course, exist, but not yet on the scale that both developers and manufacturers would like.
"Scientists often come up with something that no one needs," said Alexander Bykov, Director of Economics in Healthcare at R–Pharm JSC.
According to representatives of pharmaceutical companies, the problem could be solved by creating project offices at universities that would analyze and select the best projects in the field of pharmaceuticals.
Representatives of science agree with business. But there are also problems within universities, primarily related to the lack of funding. Universities are also experiencing a shortage of personnel. As explained by the head of the Center for Collective Use of the RUDN Rimma Abramovich, students are actively "snapped up" by pharmaceutical companies, luring them with the position of a medical representative, and few remain in science.
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21.02.2017