Ukrainian market of biotechnology with health care applications

Ukrainian market of biotechnology with health care applications

The main disciplines, which today make up modern biotechnology, include genetic engineering, monoclonal antibody, gene therapy, DNA amplification, and anti-sense technologies. Major areas of biotechnological applications are health care, agriculture, food and feeds, industrial chemicals, and the environment.

Biotechnology industry in Ukraine is mostly represented by research institutes of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Research & Development (R&D) centers at pharmaceutical plants. There are only few biotechnology companies in Ukraine.

Ukrainian scientists have obtained some important and interesting results in biotechnology, but very few of these investigations have been put into practice. Since biotechnology deals with processes rather than products, no generally applicable statistics and estimations of market value, demand for imports and the like can be provided.

Of major achievements of Ukrainian biotechnology scientists are microbe super synthesis of some essential proteins and peptides (interferon, insulin etc.), development of biosensor systems for medicine and ecology, obtaining organisms producing biologically active substances, and creation of new transgenic plants.

Institutes that carry out biomedical research are mostly concentrated in Kiev, Kharkiv, and Lviv. Despite the difficult economic situation of the country, outdated equipment, and problems obtaining reagents and other consumables, there are still many experienced groups of scientists that undertake excellent research. Many of the researchers are involved in international collaborative projects, and are able to continue their work thanks to grants from overseas:

• Groups at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology and at the Bogolyubov Institute of Theoretical Physics each have Collaborative Research Initiative Grants (CRIG) awards to work with UK scientists on radiation-induced changes in biological processes;
• Group at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics is collaborating with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at University College London.
• Department of Cellular Membranology at the Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology has a CRIG award to work on membrane proteins in influenza viruses;
• The Biotechnology Group from R.E. Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology is involved in four international collaborative projects with the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA; Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany; University of Alicante, Spain; Compagne Cedex, France; the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. The group developed more than 70 monoclonal antibodies against cell surface and intracellular human antigens.

There is an example of establishing a research facility in Ukraine by the U.S. biotechnology company Phage Biotechnology Corporation (CA, USA). Phage, developer of recombinant protein pharmaceuticals, has already transferred the production technology from Kiev, Ukraine, into its lab/production in California, and through its research facility in Kiev, continues to identify and add products to its development pipeline.

Several Ukrainian companies, mainly pharmaceutical and test systems manufacturers, use biotech approaches for their human health care products. Although none of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical manufacturers is in a position to successfully develop biotech pharmaceuticals, many of them use biotech processes as part of a manufacturing cycle. 155 companies are licensed to produce pharmaceuticals in Ukraine, but a mere 22 of these produce about 70-75% of the total domestic pharmaceutical output.

The Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry manufactures about 1,300 different medicinal products, mainly generic drugs, branded generics and vitamins. Domestic pharmaceutical production reached USD 195 million in 2000.

The main institutions carrying out R&D for the Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry are:

• The State Research and Scientific Center for Medication (Kharkiv);
• Scientific Biological Center Enzipharm (Ladigin);
• Some leading Ukrainian manufacturers (Stirol, Borshagovskiy Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant, Kievmedpreparat) have established their own R&D medical-biological centers.