Northway, a group of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies owned by scientist and entrepreneur Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, is launching the construction of Bio City, the largest biotechnology complex in Europe, in Vilnius on Thursday.
“This city will create huge economic, intellectual and social benefits and will make Lithuania’s name known around the world,” the group has said.
Bio City is planned to house six different complexes, including gene therapy, research and experimental development and virology centers, and stem cell research and 3D bioprinting laboratories.
Bumelis says Bio City will be about the size of 50 football fields.
Plans call for investing around 7 billion euros in four factories and two research centers and creating more than 2,000 new jobs over ten years.
“The complex we are starting to build is unique,” Bumelis told LRT Radio on Thursday. “There is no other complex like it in the Baltics or, of course, in Lithuania, and it will be one of the leaders in Europe.”
“We want to show that Lithuania is truly a high-tech country,” he added.
According to him, the Gene Therapy Center, Bio City’s first complex, is expected to start its operations in the second quarter of 2024.
Lithuania aims for biotechnology to contribute at least 5 percent of its GDP by 2030.
Source: BNS
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