Ministry of Industry and Trade to provide funding for drug development in Russia

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation (Minpromtorg) plans to establish its own venture investment fund by the end of the year to support science-intensive projects in medicine.

This is primarily about activities related to the development of new Russian-made medicines. Sergey Tsyb, First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, announced the establishment of a new venture fund for investments in Russian medical and pharmaceutical projects at an early stage.

“We are talking about the development of innovative drugs, new molecules, where we will share risks with business to implement such projects at the stage of late preclinical and in the first phases of clinical trials,” said Sergey Tsyb. “Within three years, we will direct 4.5 billion rubles from the state program there.”

The fund will be established based on the Russian Venture Company (RVC), which will take over the management of the investments of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“Indeed, a decision was made to establish a venture fund to support innovative projects in the pharmaceutical and medical industry,” stated Alexey Basov, Deputy General Director and Investment Director of the RVC. – Development of the basic parameters of the fund and investment strategy is close to the final stage. We expect that the fund will begin operating in 2019 “.

Alexey Alekhin, Director of the Department for the Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that in the draft budget of the Ministry for the operation of the new fund, 1.5 billion rubles were allocated for each of the next three years from 2019 to 2021. According to Mr. Alekhin, the new fund will invest directly in the assets of innovative enterprises. The project does not include any other support mechanisms (such as loans or grants). Investments will be directed to the early phases of research, bringing the preclinical studies to the early phases of clinical trials, leading them to further research phases – so that it would be of interest to strategic investors.

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