Stem Cell Research Center establishing in Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park plans to invest more than 27 million euros

The biomedical and biotechnology company “Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC) will be located in Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park (VCIIP). The SCRC research and experimental development and production center will open its doors by the beginning of 2024, where the company plans to install unique equipment that is currently not available in Lithuania – 3D bio-printers and stem cell growth bioreactors.

According to the Director of the Stem Cell Research Center prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, SCRC 3D bioprinting center will conduct research and develop innovative technologies, services and products for diagnostics, treatment, and drug research of the global market of life sciences sector.

“The global life sciences market is huge, fast-growing, and crisis-resistant. Market experts, executives of major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and economists predict that the growth rate will only accelerate as the demand for health-related products and services continues to grow due to the growing population, the aging of rich countries and the opportunities created by new technologies. It is expected that in the near future, technologies will be developed to replace some of the damaged tissues and organs, thus, no more donors will be needed – the tissues and organs will be grown in laboratories. Our company hopes to be one of the innovators in the field of development and production of artificial tissues and organs in 3D bioprinting,” says prof. V. A. Bumelis.

The Stem Cell Research Center plans to invest more than 27 million euros in the development at VCIIP. According to the head of Northtown Vilnius, operator of VCIIP, dr. Gediminas Pauliukevičius, so far, this is one of the largest and bravest investments in the field of life sciences in Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park. A 3,000 m2 SCRC 3D bioprinting center building will house a laboratory and pilot production complex, with a cluster for the development of 3D printing technologies in the life sciences. It is also planned to create more than 60 new high value-added jobs.

According to prof. V. Bumelis once ready for the development of SCRC, there were no doubts about the place: “we chose a site in Vilnius, because the largest biotechnology competencies in Lithuania are concentrated here. For us, Vilnius is a strategic place for development due to employees, logistics, interaction with other companies of our group”.

According to the Director of SCRC, the company chose Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park not only because of its convenient territory and important communications. “A unique concentration of life sciences companies and research institutions is forming in the territory, with which we expect great synergies. This will be a great place to work for our existing and new employees. We have already envisaged opportunities for further growth of the company – we have left room for the second stage of the company’s development, when much larger biotechnology production facilities will be needed. We hope to establish a 15,000 m2 biotechnology plant here in the future,” says Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, a biotechnology scientist and businessman.

Northtown Vilnius director dr. Gediminas Pauliukevičius has no doubt that the decision of such leading companies in the field of biotechnology as the Stem Cell Research Center to establish at Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park is good news for the entire VCIIP community who has trusted the vision of the innovation park. “For us, this is a confirmation that we are on the right track, and we will soon be able to move on to the second stage of the development of VCIIP – as a growing cluster of life sciences with a really strong core. The most important goal here is to concentrate efforts on the development of the lack of public infrastructure and services, so that the accelerated growth of the industry does not overtake very young, promising companies, start-ups, which, as we know, currently lack development capacity in both Vilnius and Lithuania”.

The Stem Cell Research Center is the sixth biotechnology company that has chosen Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park for business development. It will be located in the neighborhood of life science companies such as Biotecha, Experimentica, Immunodiagnostika, Sanobiotec, Gensinta. Vilnius University Life Sciences Center also intends to open its branch in Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park by 2022.

So far, 14 companies have been established or have started to establish in the Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park, developing activities in the fields of life sciences, new production processes, materials and technologies, energy and sustainable environment.