On October 19, 2016 in Hypercube (Skolkovo Innovation Center) representatives of Russian and French business and science will discuss the prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation development in the sphere of biopharmaceutics and biomedicine. The event will take part in the framework of the 50th anniversary of the scientific and technical cooperation between the two countries.

The biotechnology market is one of the most dynamically developing and attractive for business. France has been a recognized leader in this field for a long period. Russia, thanks to the recent governmental initiatives, is making the first serious steps in this way and will position itself as one on the key players in the nearest future. In this period, which is important for the Russian pharmaceutical industry development, joint projects in the sphere of scientific research and creation of new medicines open enormous opportunities for the French-Russian cooperation.

Drastic development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry is accompanied by emerging of many companies and investment institutes in biotechnology sphere. In order that commercially successful products are created as a result of these ventures, the Russian developers will need to benefit from the experience and support of their European colleagues. Joint investment scientific and technological projects are one of the key elements of progress and open new opportunities for creation of innovation projects.

France's experience in the sphere of promotion of projects from the development stage to product commercialization will be extremely useful for young developing companies, which work in the sphere of biotechnologies, and may become a sort of a springboard for their entering the global market.

Key objectives of the Conference:

1. Review of possibilities for mutually beneficial strategic partnership between the Russian and French parties.
2. Highlighting the key aspects of successful entering the global market by the Russian companies. Creation of new business contacts between startups, investors, pharmaceutical companies and research centres in the sphere of biotech innovations.

Kirill Kaem, Vice-President, Executive Director of Âiomed Cluster, Skolkovo Foundation:

''According to the experts' estimates, the global biotech market is currently evaluated as amounting to 300 billion dollars, and in the nearest years it will demonstrate 10-12% growth. From the point of view of globalization, biotech is the most indicative industry. Success of a project in our sphere depends very much on its scalability and speed of international cooperation development. Close cooperation with an experienced and strategically important partner (and France is undoubtedly such a partner) opens new opportunities for both countries both with regard to bringing to the market the products, which are already at clinical research stage, and with regard to creation of ultimately new medicines and treatment methods on the basis of biotechnologies''.

Alexis Michel, Science and Technology Advisor, Embassy of France in Russia:

''France and Russia have been closely cooperating in science and technology area during the recent centuries. A vivid example of close and fruitful ties between our countries' scientific communities is the life and work of Ilya Mechnikov, or Elie Metchnikoff. A Russian national who ended his life as a Frenchman, he was a student of Pasteur and became a Nobel Prize winner in medicine.
This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of signing the bilateral treaties, based on which the Franco-Russian cooperation in the sphere of research and innovations is being developed as of today. These initiatives gave birth to the excellent ideas, which have led to joint discoveries in such fields as mathematics, physics, space, nuclear physics and geology.
The project in the sphere of biotechnology is one of the most prominent French-Russian achievements of the recent years. It is a result of fruitful cooperation of the Toulouse University Hospital and the Engelhard Institute of the RAS in the sphere of diagnostics of hepatitis C viral strains and DNA chips. This project clearly illustrates the ability of French and Russian scientific groups to effectively join their experience and skills for development of scientific projects capable of entering the business level.
Now Russia is placing its stakes on biotechnologies development, which is one of the priority areas of its innovation policy, and creating the necessary infrastructure in order that this strategically important task could be successfully implemented. France is undoubtedly the globally recognized leader in this sphere and its achievements are in great demand. This situation favourably influences strengthening of the ties between the French and Russian scientific communities and creates excellent opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation between private companies and state scientific research institutes. Creation of DNA chips is a vivid example of effective work and a serious invitation to further close Russian-French and European cooperation.''

Irina Raskina, General Director, Bioinnovex:

''The pharmaceutics and biotech market is undoubtedly one of the most attractive ones for European companies. Nevertheless, at the first acquaintance it causes fears and miscommunication with our foreign colleagues. The same attitude may be observed on the part of Russian developers and pharmaceutics manufacturers. That is why we believe that for further development of the Russian pharmaceutical and biotech industry international exchange of experience and information and, certainly, joint projects, are of critical importance. The state programmes of the recent years have contributed to decreasing Russia's dependence on imports of expensive medicines. As of today, when one communicates with the scientific, medical and industrial elite of our country, it is impossible not to think that the next step should be the presence of innovation medicines of Russian origin in the global markets.''

Registration:

Date of holding: October 19, 2016.
Venue: Hypercube, Skolkovo
Contacts: Mikhail Smirnov, (ext. 2076),


Any additional information: Clothilde Le Coz,