Jerome Gavet, the managing director of Russia & the Eurasian Economic Union for Servier Laboratories, an international pharmaceutical company with headquarters in France, met with chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation Arkady Dvorkovich today to sign a memorandum of understanding. The MOU represents official recognition from both sides that the Skolkovo Foundation and Servier Laboratories will work together to seek out startups and research teams working on drugs in the fields of oncology and immune diseases.
Arkady Dvorkovich, the chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation talked about the organization’s role not just in the Skolkovo ecosystem but also in Russia as a whole and highlighted what he expected this collaboration would bring. “We are glad to announce the beginning of the scouting mission in collaboration with Servier,” said the chairman.”The Skolkovo Foundation biomedical cluster is home to over 600 biomedical startups. As well as that, the cluster is also collaborating with most R&D institutes in Russia. Such scouting missions give a unique opportunity to our industrial partners to quickly gain access to early-stage developments, and we are continuing to support our partners’ business development in this pandemic. However, most important is the ability to use innovations for the benefit of patients’ health and to give medical practitioners new tools in the battle against acute chronic diseases. The joint efforts to implement innovative technologies could make a significant contribution towards defeating these diseases.”
Mr. Gavet stated: “I am certain that the project will bring a significant contribution to the fight against oncological and immunodeficiency diseases and will give additional opportunity to local projects to enter the international market, thus increasing the availability of innovative therapeutic solutions to patients across the world.”
Biotech startups and research teams developing potential drug(s) for cancer and/or autoimmune diseases are invited to take part in the project. Startups should be open to partnership and must provide a description of therapeutic capabilities, including their target goal; they should also provide a description of the pathogenic pathways that are part of the compound under development, the mechanism of action (current in vitro and/or in vivo research), and the expected therapeutic effect. They should also provide information on the development stage and the strategy for protecting IP. Successful applicants will be selected for further review by the R&D division at Servier Laboratories headquarters with the opportunity to enter a partnership agreement (after passing due diligence).
Applications are being accepted by email until 1 December 2020 at [email protected].
