LITHUANIAN PAVILION AT THE 2023 BIO INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION DEMONSTRATES THE DIVERSITY OF EUROPE'S FASTEST-GROWING LIFE SCIENCES HUB

News provided by

Innovation Agency Lithuania Pavilion

Jun 02, 2023, 08:00 ET

VILNIUS, Lithuania, June 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2023 BIO International Convention in Boston, June 5-8 will showcase the strength, ingenuity, and diversity of Europe's fastest-growing life sciences hub – reaching already close to 3% of country's GDP. The 9 Lithuanian biotech stars range from cutting-edge CRISPR tools and AI-driven discovery and bioinformatics platforms through cell&gene therapy to genetic testing providers and precision medicine CROs. The US is a key market for Lithuanian life sciences and during BIO leading CDMO Northway Biotech will officially open its new cGMP manufacturing and process development plant in Waltham.

Keeps the pace of growth

Lithuania's life sciences journey begins with the first globally recognized textbook 'Theory Of Living Organisms', written by Lithuanian-Polish Professor Andrius Sniadeckis in 1804. Over the two centuries, Lithuania's biotech sector grew significantly and is one of the highest value-added and priority sectors in the national economy, says Tomas Andrejauskas, President and Board Member of the Association LithuaniaBIO.

According to Andrejauskas, the remarkable growth was reached due to decades of meticulous research, investments, and established manufacturing and R&D operations in the country by well-known market leaders such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Teva, and Roquette. 'Talking about the factors that contributed to the result, we can't exclude the deep talent pool underpinned by seven universities that equip 5-7 thousand STEM professionals per year', says Andrejauskas, adding, that some of them prove themselves by constantly winning top prizes in the iGEM contest organized by MIT.

"Lithuania's Life Sciences sector continues to be one of the fastest-growing innovation hubs in Europe. The sector has grown at an average annual rate of around 30% in recent years. The GDP generated by the industry reached 3% in 2022, while significant venture capital firms such as Taiwania Capital and Vsquared Ventures invested in the country's startups in 2023, paving the way for ground-breaking discoveries. As the sector's growth trajectory continues to accelerate, we've set a strategic goal of becoming Europe's most attractive country in the life sciences sector by 2030,' says Aušrinė Armonaitė, Minister of the Economy and Innovation of Lithuania.

'Lithuania's life science industry is highly diverse, demonstrating enormous potential in gene editing and therapy, personalized medicine, enzymology, novel protein design, and microfluidics, with a clear trend of combining traditional and AI strategies. In a decade, we faced a boom of life sciences startups – it means the field finds its place among young entrepreneurs, I believe, due to great infrastructure, talents, and governmental attention,' says Andrejauskas, adding, 'Remarkably, the number of Lithuanian life sciences startups is already approaching to 100 – I consider it as a perfect achievement of the sector.'

Andrejauskas foresees that Lithuania's life sciences sector is set to become stronger than anticipated. 'Looking ahead, we can anticipate a growing number of startups leveraging the power of AI and closing large funding rounds to promote continued growth in the industry.'

Will showcase nine life sciences leaders

One of the emerging global players from Lithuania exhibiting at BIO is Exolitus whose solution was recently awarded as the most innovative of 2022 at the local Startup Awards. Working with scientists at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Exolitus has created a patented stimulated immune cell exosome therapy that could become the key to treating one of the deadliest brain cancers – glioblastoma.

According to Dr. Aiste Jekabsone, CEO of Exolitus, the preclinical study suggests that treatment with exosomes from stimulated immune cells may be successful because they can enter the brain, carry drugs blocked by the blood-brain barrier, recognize and kill cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. In addition, they can activate the immune cells of the tumor microenvironment.

"As far as we know, this is the first therapy with this combination of properties. Thus, there is hope to extend the life expectancy of patients with glioblastoma, which currently averages 18 months after diagnosis," says Jekabsone, adding, "However, the truth will be revealed by testing this therapy in a clinical trial for which we are currently seeking funding.'

Exolitus has also developed proprietary cell-type specific exosome production methods and produces exosomes from multiple sources – human and animal cells, milk, colostrum, plants, mushrooms, and plant or mushroom cell cultures.

Another exhibitor – Genie Biotech – is a UK/Lithuania-based start-up that develops novel conjugation technologies to improve existing and new biologics. GenieTAGTM, the company's first commercially available, patent-pending, product is a small molecular weight site-specific (<300 Da), highly hydrophilic "linker". It allows the introduction of a single azide functional group to the protein of interest in a simple, quick, and non-enzymatic way. This all comes with the added benefit of allowing the end-user to (optionally) remove the installed linker via a controlled reversible reaction, leaving the native protein untouched. After GenieTAG TM has been installed on a protein of interest, the azide-functional group opens the door to many different payloads that can be conjugated via "Click Chemistry" – a technique recently awarded the Nobel Prize in 2022.

Also, Cumulatis – a company that seeks to empower bioprocess engineers to use advanced process modelling, optimization, and control tools to design efficient and robust bioprocesses. The company accelerates the transition phase for novel hardware, cloud, software, and embedded system products starting from the laboratory scale experiments to the industrial bioreactors. In recent direct drive bioengineering successes, the Cumulatis team and the Kaunas University of Technology worked together to develop unique bioengineering goods, like peristaltic and stirring solutions. A transparent peristaltic pump makes its official debut at this year's BIO Convention.

The complete list of companies attending comprises: