The research center Pasteur Institute of Uruguay is on track to close its first round of capital integration to biotech startups, within LAB+ Venturesthe institute’s incubator together with the investment firm Ficus Advisory.
In a novel strategy that seeks to integrate the national scientific system—today financed mainly with State investments and the only work environment for Uruguayan researchers—with the private environment, LAB+ will close its first in 15 days capital call, in which investments will be defined for four “proto-companies”, “scientific projects that we want to transform into scientific-technological based companies through a strong contribution of very interesting money, in a very short period of time, so that they can move towards being 100% private companies“, as explained by the director of the Institut Pasteur, Carlos Batthyany, in dialogue with Radio Carve.
“It allows us to begin to close that virtuous circle in the generation of knowledge, which is the official mission of the Institut Pasteur in Montevideo”, said the researcher and doctor in reference to the institution’s objective of not only generating knowledge from science, but also applying that knowledge to “have a country based on a more productive economy, with more innovation, and more sustainable.”
As he highlighted, the idea is to “help promote the knowledge development led to provide solutions to real-world problems, and if that serves to give it a economic return to the institute, welcome.”
On the other hand, the impulse to biotech startups Through the incubator it also seeks to reduce a problem that the country is currently experiencing: the so-called “brain drain”. “The problem is that today scientists in Uruguay They can only work in academic institutions They are already saturated, so there are no positions for researchers in important positions, with correct and adequate salaries, and with stability. Then they have to go to positions in other places,” Batthyany explained.
“In that sense, the creation of companies, even if they are small, that hire at least 10 researchers, begins to generate a change,” he considered, adding that the dream is that “LAB+, in 10 years, will attract at least 10 % and 20% of the researchers, which would be between 100 and 200 people.”
In addition to the four “proto-companies” included in the soon-to-close investment round, the director of the Institut Pasteur also particularly highlighted two other initiatives that arose before the creation of LAB+ Ventures. On the one hand, EoloPharma, which is completing the first human clinical trial of a drug intended to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes—the first of its kind in Uruguay and of South America, according to Batthyany—; and, on the other, Xeptiva Therapeutics, which is advancing a therapy to block pain in pets and recently closed a major financing to internationalize.
Towards a global patent agreement
Asked about the president’s statements Luis Lacalle Pou at the end of the year regarding the need for Uruguay progress in a global patent agreement, Battyany recalled that the country is one of the few countries in the world that is not part of the Patent Protection Cooperation Treaty. In South America, they are not adhered either Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay; while, at a general level, only a few countries of Africa and Asia to this exclusion.
“Yeah Uruguay wants to present itself as a regional innovation hubthe first thing you have to do is be in the treaty, because otherwise it is very difficult for large international companies that invest in research and development to want to come to Uruguay”, stated the director of the Institut Pasteur, in this regard.
Source: Ambito
