Vladas Algirdas Bumelis: “If We Had Invested in Virology Five Years Ago, We Would Have Produced a COVID-19 Vaccine by Now in Lithuania”

Last December, the European Union reached agreement on the Recovery and Resilience Facility (EUR 672.5 billion) for European economies to mitigate the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the Government of Lithuania plans to finance economic projects worth EUR 813 million. Decisions regarding the feasibility of implementing such projects will be made by 30 April.

According to Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, the well-known biotechnologist, entrepreneur, and founder of the Northway medical centres, this economic strategy must accommodate the economic areas and sectors with high added value. “High added value is possible where there is little competition or where innovative products are developed. These products originate in the sectors supported by science and innovation.”

With proper investment, we can reach the level of Singapore

The entrepreneur believes that we need to promote innovation in the areas where a very strong science and business input has already been made in Lithuania, because if we start with new fields of science, we will only have results in business 30 years later.

The professor believes that biotechnology is one of the most promising areas in Lithuania. There are world-class scientists working in the field and several of the international biotech companies that operate in Lithuania arrived by acquiring the businesses of local scientists and entrepreneurs.

“Today, the biotechnology sector accounts for 1.5% of GDP of Lithuania. In recent years the share has grown by over 70%, which is several times more than any other area of the economy that has received financial support in Lithuania. If we invest another EUR 200 million in this sector in the coming years, in five years’ time 5% of GDP will be from this sector, which is the level in Singapore,” Prof. Bumelis explained.

Although he emphasizes that biotechnology is certainly not the only field of science and business where investment must be made today, it really is in the top 3.

The entrepreneur believes that if we wish to aim high in business, we must follow similar principles as in agriculture – everything needs to be done in time, not when there is time or resources. “All countries compete for talent and investment in biotechnology. The applicability of this field of science to business is so great that we must run at high speed in order to keep up with the rest and not waste potential,” Prof. Bumelis said. He noted that Lithuania made a huge mistake five years ago by not investing in one important area based on biotechnology. “Had we invested in the field of virology, which nobody was interested in at the time, we would have had a COVID-19 vaccine in Lithuania. We can only imagine what impact this would have had on our GDP growth.”

You cannot start this business in a garage

The professor says that you can count on the fingers of one hand what is required to develop the biotechnology sector in Lithuania. First of all, Lithuania currently lacks attention to world-class fundamental and applied science on which the sector relies – to innovation applicable in business.

Innovative projects should be supported on principles other than those currently in place. According to Bumelis, an innovation project is not like building of a house – it may happen that two years of research may lead nowhere. “This does not mean that the project is bad and the support received cannot be paid back. We need a phase-gate approach. A project receives long-term financial support, but if no interim results are achieved, the gates are closed and if the results are achieved the project continues to participate in the programme for the entire five-year period. Thus, the best reach the finish line. After discarding projects on the way, there is more money for the successful projects.”

Biotechnology is also an area where long-term cooperation between science and business is required as this brings experience and understanding of how business must be built. Such competences do not disappear, they remain in Lithuania. “The success stories of Lithuania in attracting foreign investment (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Teva, and Roquette) did not appear on a “green field”, but resulted from businesses developed by the local science and business community with State aid.”

Therefore, in order to develop this area, a strong base is required – access to very expensive laboratory equipment and highly educated “expensive” people. “There is also a need for highly sought and costly commercialization services. All in all, you cannot start this business in a garage,” the biotechnologist said.

There will be nobody to do the work

According to Bumelis, regular rather than random financing of Lithuanian projects helps maintain the competences of the world-class scientists. This is also very important for business, because all companies in the biotechnology sector really need people trained by universities and scientists. “There is global competition for biotech talent, but in order to train a large number of such professionals quickly, good infrastructure and targeted public funding are also required, otherwise we will be the victims of our success – we will have a rapidly growing biotechnology industry, but we will not be able to grow because there will be no people to work in these companies.”

According to Bumelis, the academic infrastructure in this sector is expensive, because a student in biotechnology or pharmaceutical sciences must learn to work with very expensive and constantly changing technologies. “Otherwise, after graduating, any such young specialist would have to learn all the practical things again. This is not efficient and business investment may just go where more professionals are trained and where they are trained better. Lithuania must keep up with this.”

As already mentioned, the biotechnology sector in Lithuania has grown by 71% over a period of five years, which would be nearly 140% over a period of 10 years or growth of almost 2.4 times. “If such prospective and growing economic areas accounted for at least a third of our GDP, the Lithuanian economy in this sector would almost double in 10 years. This means that we would catch up with countries such as Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. I think it is worth trying,” Bumelis concluded.