Lithuania’s biotech and pharmaceutical group Northway opened Celltechna in Vilnius on Thursday. It is the first gene therapy centre in the Baltic State with an investment of EUR 50 million. The centre is part of the Bio City project.
Bio City is Europe’s largest biotechnology campus, with four factories and two research centres. Investments in it are projected to reach around EUR 7 billion over the next decade and to create more than 2,000 jobs.
“The opening of the first gene therapy centre in the Baltic States marks another step toward building a world-class life science infrastructure in our country,” Lithuania’s minister for the economy and innovation, Ausrine Armonaite, said.
The centre’s owners say that it will provide development and manufacturing of advanced gene therapy drugs for pharmaceutical companies in the European Union and the United States.
“Lithuania’s ambition is to generate 5% of the country’s GDP from biotechnology by 2023,” a news release from the company states. “This is gaining momentum with the construction of Bio City, which is the largest life science and technology campus in Europe.”
Group CEO Vladas Algirdas Bumelis has said that the campus will cover an area roughly equal to ten football pitches.
Source: BNS
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