Business news

22 Aug 2023

Governor opines on prospects for biotechnology cluster in Vitebsk Oblast

MINSK, 22 August (BelTA) – Vitebsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Subbotin told reporters about his vision of the future of the biotechnology industry in the region. The governor’s press appearance took place following the meeting hosted by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko to discuss development prospects for Vitebsk Oblast, BelTA has learned.

“The influx of investments is one of the key aspects of the establishment of a biotechnology cluster in Vitebsk Oblast,” the governor noted. “I have always cited the Netherlands as an example. The country’s exports were once estimated at almost $100 billion. Their exports were driven by high technology, namely advanced biotechnology products, like medicines, vaccines, seeds, pedigree animals. We want to follow suit,” the governor said.

“Besides this, many new biotechnology-based products, like medicines, as well as new approaches to medicines are emerging. These are vector vaccines, medicines based on monoclonal antibodies,” Aleksandr Subbotin continued. “These are cutting-edge solutions, state-of-the-art things that not every country can afford to produce, we want to master it here, on the territory of Vitebsk Oblast,” the governor noted.

At the same time, the governor emphasized: “Although the commercial aspect is very important, I see this, first of all, as an opportunity to pool knowledge and skills that can later be used to solve any task that the government will set, to have a pool of talent who will be able to create some new product, a new line of products that will be even more competitive in the domestic and foreign markets.”

Aleksandr Subbotin noted that some call it a cluster, others call it a biotechnology park, a high-tech park. In this regard, he remarked: “The name does not really matter. The most important thing is the approach. After receiving the instruction from the head of state a year ago, we studied the world’s best practices, talked with a large number of scientists, manufacturers running state-run and private companies. And all this helped us bring everything together, identify the most important aspects of this idea. It turned out that science should be at the core of it. Just as important is a production site where new inventions will be tried and tested.”

Aleksandr Subbotin noted during the meeting that “a science and technology center should be at the core of this cluster. This center should brainstorm ideas and develop state-of-the-art solutions in all areas of biotechnology and implement the outputs of research in the manufacturing sector”.

The governor emphasized that over the past year the external conditions changed: “The sanctions are piling up.” In this regard, the very concept of the cluster was revised. By the way, its development strategy will be flexible and will be amended taking into consideration the changing environment.

“The core part of the biotechnology cluster will consist of several segments,” Aleksandr Subbotin explained. “The first segment will be the existing production at BelVitunipharm, which we are improving. This segment will not only produce biotechnology products, but it will also become one of the main sites to brainstorm ideas and produce small batches of medicines and to analyze whether they will be commercially successful,” the governor said.

In addition to that, there are plans to create a registration system for all medicines, be it veterinary drugs or medicines for humans. Moreover, this system should keep track of all research efforts in this field.

There are plans to set up a non-biology enterprise that will help with paperwork, including patent registration.

Aleksandr Subbotin emphasized: “The core enterprise will be the point of convergence for a large number of enterprises that were set up in Vitebsk Oblast earlier due to the existing pool of scientific talent”.

According to the governor, this cluster will attract new technologies and specialists. “The world is changing, and we must stay current with the changes. Maybe this project will branch out into something else,” he concluded.

Speaking about this project, Deputy Healthcare Minister Boris Androsyuk noted: “The president gave an instruction to discuss the matter with several investors, to work out details, including economic aspects. This project should benefit us. We have worked out several vectors, but there were more proposals. These are the Asian vector, the Russian vector and, possibly, the European one. We need to work through everything, decide what is most optimal, economically feasible and fast.”