New large biopharma cluster outside Moscow slated for full launch in 2015

The RandD center at Severny, one of Russia?s largest biopharma clusters, is expected to be commissioned just outside Moscow two years from now.

The R&D center at Severny, a new biopharma cluster, is expected to be commissioned in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow two years from now, Andrei Ivashchenko, the chairman of ChemRar, a private Russian high-tech center in the Moscow region, announced last week. ?The biopharma cluster itself is already an existing entity; it?s a not-for-profit partnership between the regional business community and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), a state university offering its space in Dolgoprudny to house the cluster,? Mr. Ivashchenko said. According to him, the new R&D center building that broke ground last year will have an area of 12 square kilometers?enough to ?accommodate up to a thousand scientists.? The new biopharma cluster?s primary goal is to help lower Russia?s dependence on imported drugs and raw materials for new drugs. Another objective will reportedly be to create new jobs for young scientists, MIPT postgraduates and undergraduates, right next to their alma mater in an effort to prevent the current ?brain flight? abroad...