Bayer rewards Skolkovo’s innovation biomedicine projects

Three innovative biomed projects were selected as the winners of the Patents Power competition last week organised by the Skolkovo Foundation (Russia), the pharmaceutical giant Bayer (Germany) and Rospatent, Russia’s federal intellectual property service.

The competition was designed to identify biomed projects working in the fields of cancer, cardiovascular disease, ophthalmology and gynaecology that have great potential for securing their intellectual property rights.

The first place was awarded to Vladimir Rikhter for a treatment that has been shown to slow the growth of breast and brain tumours, and second place went to Roman Kholodenko for a cancer therapy that attacks tumour cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed. Third place was awarded to Albert Muslimov for technology for creating new medicines for socially significant illnesses using genetic engineering and other technologies.

All three winners will be awarded grants of $10,000 from Bayer, part of which must be spent on securing their intellectual property rights. Bayer also offers the winners its industry expertise in this area.

The Patents Power competition saw 44 applications, of which 29 projects made it through to the semi-final, and 10 to the final, in which they pitched their projects to a jury. Of the 10 finalists, eight were working in the field of cancer treatment, one in cardiovascular disease, and one in ophthalmology: a treatment for glaucoma.

Igor Drozdov, chairman of the board of the Skolkovo Foundation, commented:

“The results of the competition will help Bayer to find interesting projects, which will as a consequence be turned into intellectual property with a high value.”

According to Mr. Drozdov, last year, more than half of the 143 foreign patents obtained by Skolkovo were for biomed projects.

Niels Hessmann, general director of Bayer in Russia and its general representative in Russia and the CIS, stated:

“We truly believe in the potential that exists in Russia. That potential is very high. This project of ours will facilitate the development of innovations in Russia and will boost the appearance of new Russian developments on the international market.”