Companies producing innovative products are practically nonexistent in today's Russia. Almost 80% of its medicines are imported, and most domestic producers are large, state-owned conglomerates manufacturing generics. The Russian Federation, however, is prepared to reach deep into its pockets to turn those statistics around. Last year, the government committed ∼$3.9 billion—with another $2 billion slated from 'extra-budgetary' sources—over the next decade to the Pharma-2020 plan. The plan aims to boost the amount of drugs produced domestically from 20% to 50%, with half of those being novel medicines. It also calls for training a skilled biotech workforce of 5,000 specialists and creating 10,000 jobs in the industry—all by 2020. Biosimilars are also on Russia's radar. In August, Moscow-based SynBio launched with a public-private partnership investment of RUB 3.2 billion ($104.2 million) to produce biosimilars and biobetters.
Although the Pharma-2020 funds will largely go toward supporting mid- to late-stage preclinical programs and clinical development and manufacturing, Rusnano and a handful of other projects are geared towards seed-stage startups. Rusnano is a state-backed $9 billion fund set up in 2007 but reorganized in March 2011 as a joint-stock company headquartered in Moscow. It has a mandate to build up the nanotech industry in Russia by investing in companies developing and commercializing nanotech-based products across sectors. For nanobiotech companies, such as BIND and Selecta, funding from Rusnano offers the opportunity of “tapping into not only the Rusnano investment option, but also having access to the science and technology and clinical trials and everything that Russia as one of the big emerging markets has to offer,” says Selecta's Cautreels.
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