Lithuania's Vision to Become a Biotech Hub in Europe

Ahead of the BIO conference, Innovation Agency, Lithuania explains what the country’s plans are for future growth in the area and how this is built upon students heading into STEM studies.

FREMONT, CA: The Baltic nation has set a goal of having life sciences account for five per cent of its GDP by 2030, which is likely to represent a five-fold increase from the time of the declaration. The country representing diverse business sectors, Innovation Agency Lithuania, stated ahead of the BIO International Conference that the country is eager to expand its ties with the business in the United States, which accounted for 28 per cent of its life sciences exports in 2021. Northway Biotech, a Lithuanian contract development and manufacturing company, recently strengthened the connection by establishing a manufacturing facility in Boston, Massachusetts.

Lithuania’s emphasis on science has proved beneficial in terms of the number of students who choose to study STEM topics, with 25 per cent of students preferring to study those subjects. Another advantage for Lithuania is that, despite the industry's overall push for inclusion and 

diversity, 58 per cent of researchers in the country are women. The Innovation Agency Lithuania seeks to be an entrance point for global enterprises to connect with partners in Lithuania as well as provide financial support to 'innovation projects' of all kinds of organisations. One of the agency's responsibilities at BIO is to enable Lithuanian enterprises to interact with partners, and the country will be represented by eight life sciences companies, one of which is Biomapas, a contract research organisation (CRO).

Biomapas specialises in delivering regulatory, clinical, and pharmacovigilance services to biological product companies. Its services can help assets proceed from the preclinical stage through Phase III trials. On an enquiry about the company’s work, Biomapas chief global clinical research officer stated that the entire clinical research team concentrates on early phase clinical trial delivery, thus uniting the medication developer, the investigation’s site and the patients. The company also owns BIO1, a specialised early-phase clinical trial site housed inside a large university hospital with access to all of the necessary information and equipment to identify patients who are suited for clinical trials and ensure their safety.