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Contents: |
| Issue Overview and
additional references. Biotech
in China and Taiwan by William T. H.
Chang, President, China League Biotechnology Association
Best International Business
links on the Web, Cay Villars, President, Market Value Concepts
Technology Transfer Opportunies in
Russia, Tom Ruddy, President, Trykor.
Protect Your Corporate IP Position,
by Charles S. Sara, Practice Group
Chair, DeWitt, Ross & Stevens.
US Govt. Resources for Intl. Bus. on
the Net, Sharon Locken, President, Locken
Information. |
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Technology Transfer and
Business Development in Russia: A Review and Status Report, p 1. |
| by Thomas R. Ruddy, President, Trykor. |
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 rior to the break-up of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, there
were approximately 4,000 federally subsidized research institutes spread around the
country, a number similar to the US federally funded lab population. In fact, in recent
decades, the former Soviet Union employed nearly as many scientists as the US. It is no
secret that under Soviet rule there prevailed an anxiety about sharing information in
general, which is fundamentally counter to the technology transfer process. (It is
noteworthy that all inventions were state property once disclosed, at most bringing to the
inventor a small bonus equivalent to a few hundred dollars.)
As a result of this environment and general lack of laissez
faire free market stimuli, a profusion of technologies simply accumulated in the files of
institutes and in the minds of very competent scientists.
Early in 1992, the new democratic Russian government was forced to slash funding to
most research institutes but also granted them the right (and indeed the incentive) to
legally solicit business from foreign firms to generate their own operating income.
Henceforth, Russia was open for business, with technology transfer and collaborative
opportunities abounding in the areas of.
- joint R&D activities
- contract research capabilities
- enrolling clinical trial patients
- licensing of existing technologies
- preliminary validation studies
The key Russian institutes operating today offer competitive technologies in areas such
as lasers, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and is capturing significant attention as a virgin
market for clinical trial implementation with over a hundred million un-enrolled patients
(and let us not forget organ preservation!). It is possible to contract with these
institutes for specific tasks; Russian salaries run about $150 a month for a Ph.D., but
foreign firms are expected to pay from $500 to $1,500 a month for the same person, a sum
that often includes supplies and equipment use.
Several of the largest US and European pharmaceutical firms boast full research
capabilities in Russia and have even invested in building R&D labs there. The most
favored Russian institutes enjoy substantial support both from the Russian government as
well as from foreign governments. In fact, on a trip I made to Moscow last month, I
witnessed the opening days at the Bakulev Institute of Cardiology’s sprawling new
facility financed by US, German and Turkish credits. At the same time I saw their
enterprising scientists roll the first Russian-made heart pacers come off the line,
containing only "a few" non-Russian components.
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