Biotechnologies in the Czech Republic: current status, trends and challenges

This review presents an overview of the current status of the biotechnology sector in the Czech Republic (CR), its future trends and main challenges. CR is the country that laid down the principal laws of heredity, introduced the contact lens to the world and successfully developed the compounds on which current anti-AIDS drugs are based. The history of Czech biotechnology is strongly associated with typical local industries such as beer and wine production. Research institutions focus traditionally on the plant and animal biotechnologies. Recently, biotechnology-related achievements have been oriented preferentially towards nanotechnology, pure biotechnology and human healthcare. The public biotech sector includes, above all, EU programmes. Since 2007, there has been a major investment in large EU-funded research infrastructures outside the Prague region to equalize the competitivness in other regions (Brno, Olomouc) and to complement the existing research institutes. The private sector includes some global companies - Teva Pharmaceutical, Sanofi, Lonza Biotec and Gilead Sciences, among others. The local structure consists almost exclusively of small companies and only several middle-sized companies with a quite high orientation on the inland market. Recently, some clusters were established as platforms for exchanging information on the development of science and technology, identifying synergies and possible collaborations to address critical issues covering the full value chain from R&D to production in the fields of Czech biotech. The big chance for CR biotechnology is the technical crossover with biotech and other sciences, as a possible boost of bioinformatics-driven R&D&I due to very strong ICT in CR