BioWorld International Correspondent

HELSINKI, Finland - Five years since its establishment of ScanBalt as a biotechnology metaregion or network of networks, the initiative is starting to influence the shape of biotechnology cooperation among its member organizations, companies and institutions.

The regional, located in 11 countries stretching from Iceland in the west to the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, in the east, is seeing a growing number of projects emerging in multiple areas, including research, education and training, intellectual property protection and technology transfer point due to the increased level of cooperation between the countries. Those projects have attracted more than €4.2 million (US$5.4 million) in funding so far.

The organization now is trying to catalyze the creation of new funding mechanisms for the life sciences within the region, and to gain a leading role in upcoming European Union initiatives.

ScanBalt, which is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, was created in early 2002 aimed at overcoming the limitations of individual constituent members by fostering greater interaction and partnership between companies, research institutes and universities across the region. The umbrella body comprises 15 local or regional biotechnology associations, as well as 23 universities and 15 industry and technology transfer organizations. (See BioWorld International, Sept. 11, 2002.)

A recently completed mapping and cluster analysis project has fed into the development of an internet-based yellow pages of all biotechnology-related organizations across the region. The final report will be published in March and will contain findings that will challenge existing assumptions. "There's a myth that there is not much to be found in the Baltic countries. That's wrong," said ScanBalt Chairman Bo Samuelsson.

The mapping project has helped spawn the establishment of several new local organizations, including the Latvian Biotechnology Association, which was set up in 2006. Two fledgling organizations, Biosantara and BioPomerania, also have been created to promote the development of biotechnology in Vilnius, Lithuania and the Gdansk region of Poland, respectively.

The ScanBalt concept has not gained the endorsement of all the main biotechnology players in the region, however. In fact, the biggest of them all has opted to stay out of the umbrella body. "Stockholm-Uppsala are not members of ScanBalt, unfortunately. We are working on that," Samuelsson said.

One of the main problems the region as a whole faces is a pervasive lack of finance. Apart from Medicon Valley, a mature cluster that links the greater Copenhagen region with Lund and Malmo in southwest Sweden, most locations and companies across ScanBalt are struggling to attract investment. The end result is that good ideas, funded by taxpayer dollars, are often commercialized outside the region. "We have to do something about that," he added.

One idea currently under development is a proposed Baltic Sea Region Life Sciences Foundation, which would act as a vehicle for funding public-private partnerships that could address areas that currently are underserved by the financial markets.

"You have this gap in the market before venture capital or commercial capital goes in," ScanBalt General Secretary Peter Frank told BioWorld International.

The Stockholm, Sweden-based banking group Nordea, the largest financial services firm in the region, is one of the movers behind the concept, and it would be in a position to fund promising projects. Norforsk, the Nordic Council of Ministers, a research and education initiative involving the relevant ministries from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, also has expressed support for the proposed initiative. But it needs additional political backing before it can become a reality.

Norforsk is exploring the potential of the proposed foundation to support an international PhD program in biotechnology which would be funded jointly by the public and private sectors. The Drug Research Academy (DRA), based at the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Copenhagen, offers an existing model for that type of postgraduate education. Backed by 11 pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, the academy has recruited some 50 students over the past five years. They are engaged in projects that address all aspects of the drug discovery and development process.

Copenhagen-based pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk A/S is one of principal industry backers of the academy. Børge Diderichsen, vice president of corporate research affairs at Novo Nordisk, said the program is seeking renewal through international expansion, and it aims to compete for a key role in the upcoming Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a broadly based R&D program backed by the Brussels, Belgium-based European Commission and Europe's pharmaceutical industry. (See BioWorld International, Sep. 27, 2006.)

The IMI is intended to halt Europe's declining competitiveness in pharmaceutical development by addressing bottlenecks in drug development research, training and knowledge management. Its strategic research agenda includes the creation of a European Medicines Research Academy (EMRA) to train a targeted 480 PhD students across the whole lifecycle of drug development. The DRA aims, with the help of partners in Sweden initially, to create an international academy for drug research that would compete with other European centers for IMI funding.

"The nucleus of this will start in the Medicon Valley cooperation," he told BioWorld International. The complexity of the European Union's lengthy decision-making process has introduced uncertainties into the process, however. "Good ideas don't remain good ideas," Diderichsen said.