"New Russia is catching up at an stellar speed on VC, research, new development and aiming at having global assets” – Fabrice Egros on BIO-2015

NovaMedica has taken part in the Russian panel discussion on BIO-2015 in Philadelphia (USA). The session “Reaching Out to Russia: The Biotech R&D Landscape and Global Drug Discovery Case Studies. Emerging Opportunities in Global Markets” was organized by Skolkovo Foundation.

“It was a pleasure to be a part of the Russian panel, moderated by Stephen Sammut, Professor at Wharton University, known for his research and publication in BRICS healthcare development. Time passed through one hour like never seen,” – said Fabrice Egros, NovaMedica COO.

He explained that NovaMedica and Selecta, two companies from RUSNANO investment portfolio, were where highly appreciated by the audience in their effort to provide innovation to healthcare in Russia. Audience couldn’t understand how NovaMedica is already on the market, while usually it takes ten years to address the market in pharmaceuticals. But while explaining the source, origination and the model of NovaMedica, this was clear and understood.

“The key questions came about research and why Russian company didn’t develop their own original molecule with global rights. A long debate on research came with Skolkovo Foundation stating that their mission is to help on this as well as the fact that the Pharma market is global and all companies aim to be global”, - added Fabrice Egros, - "New Russia is a young country and is catching up at an stellar speed on venture investment, research, new development and aiming at having global assets”.

Emerging markets are becoming more attractive for biotech R&D. Attractions include the financing environment, a growing infrastructure with high-quality research facilities, experience in organization of clinical trials from early proof-of-concept phases to international multicenter studies, wider pools of patients and low levels of competition for investigators and new opportunities for collaborative projects and “mirroring” research that accelerate the development process. In this session, key leaders from venture capital funds and development institutes will discuss case studies and share their experience, in order to explore opportunities and challenges in the biotech sector in Russia.