Northway Group, a group of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies owned by the Lithuanian scientist and businessman Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, has launched the construction of its Bio City, claimed to be the largest biotechnology campus in Europe.
The campus in Vilnius “will create huge economic, intellectual and social benefits and will make Lithuania’s name known around the world”, the group claims.
Bio City is expected to include six different complexes dedicated to gene therapy, research and experimental development, virology, stem cell research, and 3D bioprinting laboratories.
Bumelis said that the campus will be the size of about 50 football fields.
Northway Group is planning to invest around 7 billion euros in four factories and two research centres over the coming decade, creating more than 2,000 new jobs.
“The complex we are starting to build is unique, 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,” Bumelis told LRT RADIO on Thursday.
He said that the first facility of the campus, the Gene Therapy Centre, should start its operations in the second quarter of 2024.
Lithuania wants to develop its biotechnology industry so that it accounts for at least 5 percent of the GDP by 2030.
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