About 100 highly qualified jobs are planned to be created in this center.
The new center is expected to develop and produce cell therapy products and personalized therapeutic vaccines. Regenerative medicine products and 3D human tissue printing technologies will also be developed here.
Invested 61 million euros
The founder and chairman of the board of the Northway group of companies, Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, spoke at the opening about the broad opportunities of this project. He paid particular attention to the treatment of blood cancer.
“There is such a nasty disease – blood cancer. Cancer cells are so clever that they pretend to be good, not bad, so our lymphocytes cannot recognize them. In this center, we will take lymphocytes from a person and slightly modify them so that they can recognize cancer cells. In this way, lymphocytes will treat this disease and save people’s lives,” explained the founder and chairman of the board of the Northway group of companies, Prof. V.A. Bumelis.
This center will become part of the “Bio City” ecosystem being created by the company in Vilnius. It covers the fields of biological drugs, gene and cell therapy. According to the company, the infrastructure installed in the new center will allow not only scientific research but also the production of the developed therapeutic products.
President Gitanas Nausėda, who spoke at the opening, emphasized the importance of this project for Lithuania.
“In my deep conviction, this is Lithuania’s path to the future. We need all branches of industry and traditional manufacturing sectors, but the 21st and 22nd centuries will belong to technologically innovative sectors that create huge added value,” stressed the head of state.
According to the president, the center is an example for politicians on how to implement ambitious ideas.
“It is rare to see such an ambitious idea consistently and astonishingly go all the way to fulfillment. We, politicians, really should learn from you. Sometimes our ideas get stuck somewhere, sometimes we start to hinder each other. Such examples, in the good sense of the word, are contagious and certainly encourage following your example,” G. Nausėda said at the center’s opening event in Vilnius on Thursday.
We, politicians, really should learn from you.
“We can present as many beautiful incentives as we want, but the most important thing is the people – the people who work together. We all move forward together, so I want to thank everyone who works with us,” said V.A. Bumelis.
A new step for Lithuania
Speaker of the Seimas Juozas Olekas called the opening a new stage in the development of Lithuanian science. According to him, previously the country mostly adopted medical innovations created elsewhere, but now it contributes to their creation itself.
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“Today we have a new qualitative step – we do not implement, but create. We create therapy, gene and personalized medicine, 3D biotechnologies. This is an unimaginable progress made by Lithuania,” said J. Olekas.
Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said that “Bio City III” demonstrates Lithuania’s ability not only to use technologies created in other countries but also to create products demanded in the global market.
“Today, the countries that win in the world are those that can quickly turn scientific knowledge into real solutions useful to people and society. Therefore, this project is an investment in the economy, whose most important resource lies not in this wonderful nature but precisely in the human brain,” said the prime minister.
M. Sinkevičius also emphasized that such projects can help retain young specialists in Lithuania and attract talent from abroad.
“One thing is to tell young people that they can achieve any heights in Lithuania, but quite another is to see real, motivating examples like the one we see here. This is an incentive for young people to stay in Lithuania and for foreign talents to come here,” he said.
The prime minister added that he hopes the development of “Bio City” will not end with this center.
Deputy Minister of Health Danielius Naumovas pointed out that some advanced treatment methods already used in the United States or other European countries are still unavailable to Lithuanian patients. One reason is the relatively small market of the country.
“Although the Ministry of Health would like to purchase and reimburse these treatments, sometimes our market is simply too small, so the treatment does not come to Lithuania. Such centers give hope – sometimes the last hope – that we will be able to cure people,” said D. Naumovas.
At the end of the event, the symbolic ribbon of the center’s opening was cut by the founder and chairman of the board of the Northway group of companies, Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, President Gitanas Nausėda, Speaker of the Seimas Juozas Olekas, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius, and Minister of Economy and Innovation Edvinas Grikšas. After the official ceremony, guests were given tours of the new center.
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