Biotechnology offers business opportunities

Moscow hosted the VII International Congress on Biotechnology: the state and the prospects for development. Four days of scholars, producers, entrepreneurs discussed what prospects this field of knowledge presents to humankind. And they're basically unlimited.

♪ Biotechnology responds to all the major challenges of the twenty-first century - in his report the Director of the RAN Centre for Bioengineering, the RAN Academy and RASHN Constantin Skrabi. - This is a change in the paradigm of modern medicine from the treatment of diseases to health care, longevity, the creation of innovative medicines. It's the creation of new food and new agriculture. It's looking for other sources of energy. Finally, it addresses the problems of drinking water shortages and climate change.

The use of biotechnology in medicine is particularly promising. The spread of the human genome and the improvement of the process itself now reveal the human predisposition to various diseases, at the earliest stages, in fact before birth. And tomorrow, when this procedure becomes very cheap and routine, information on the genome of each person can be stored in his cell phone, as will many diagnostic applications. New technologies for the production of vaccines, enzymes, hormones, diagnostics, cellular lines and other biopreparates will make many diseases accessible to all.

Aware of these prospects, the Government has adopted an integrated BIO-2020 programme, with a total funding of about 1, 2 trillion roubles from the federal budget and extrabudgetary funds. The strategic objective of the programme is to create a globally competitive, developed biotechnology sector, which, together with the nano-industrial and information technology industry, should be the basis for building a post-industrial economy in our country.

Together with academic institutions and public enterprises, private companies, especially innovative ones, have an important role to play in programme implementation. However, it is difficult for them to engage in such ambitious tasks without substantial support. At the very least, the World Biotechnology-2013 exhibit, which was accompanied by the congress, represented a large number of foreign firms and domestic dealers of imported equipment, bio-technology equipment, reagents and other consumables than Russian producers of innovative products themselves.