The issues of commercialisation of the results of scientific and scientific-technical activity in the country were considered during the Government session of the Republic of Kazakhstan under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov. The Minister of Science and Higher Education, Sayasat Nurbek, and the Director General of the Scientific and Production Centre for Microbiology and Virology, Amankeldy Sadanov, shared their views on the development of the situation in this area.

 

"Issues of commercialisation of the results of scientific and scientific-technical activity are particularly relevant in the light of society's expectations in the form of application of domestic developments in the real economy and the gradual transformation of the national results-oriented science system," Nurbek began his speech.

In his election programme, President Tokayev said that science would be oriented towards new production technologies that would make the country competitive.

"Successful commercialisation increases the added value and strengthens the competitiveness of businesses and the country as a whole," Nurbek said.

The minister noted that there are a number of major challenges, one of which is the application of science to the industrial needs of the country. The aim is to shift to a knowledge-based economy. Bringing innovative products to market involves a very complex journey from generating ideas, conducting basic research to building innovative businesses and bringing finished products to the market to the end consumer.

According to the Minister, when considering the commercialization of Kazakhstani science, international experience was comprehensively studied and three examples were highlighted - the experience of the USA, Germany and Finland. In the USA, this is the American National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent agency of the U.S. government responsible for the development of science and technology. In Germany, it is the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DGF). This German research centre is the central self-governing organisation of German science, whose main task is to finance scientific research at universities and public research institutes in Germany. It selects the best projects on a competitive basis.

In Finland, Finpro and Tekes have been merged since 2018 to ensure continuity in the chain from research to export. Today, Business Finland is the main public funding organisation for research, development and innovation.

In our country, with the adoption of the Law on Commercialisation, in the three years from 2016 to 2018 alone, the Science Foundation held three competitions, which received 1270 applications, over 1000 passed through the examination, 193 projects were approved for funding by the decision of the CNS, 171 contracts were concluded, and over 150 projects were supported. During the implementation of the projects, 140 knowledge-intensive production facilities were created, of which 15 projects were exported and 5 projects reached sales of more than 1 billion tenge.

Sales revenues amount to 26.5 billion tenge, including 465.5 million tenge in exports. More than 6 billion tenge in tax payments have been paid to the budget. Co-financing amounts to about 6.8 billion tenge. More than 1,400 people were provided with jobs.

Last year, a new competition was held in which 152 applications were submitted, 134 of which were evaluated, 72 projects were approved for funding by the specialised NSSC for commercialisation of Russian science and technology, and 68 contracts were signed with grant recipients.

"In the context of economic sectors, the portfolio is predominantly made up of agribusiness, healthcare and chemical industry projects. In the context of the regions, scientists from Almaty, Astana and Karaganda are more active in commercialising scientific projects. This once again emphasizes the need to strengthen work in the regions," Nurbek said.

According to him, business acceleration will serve as a catalyst for the growth and development of new commercialised projects targeting the needs of the regional manufacturing sector.

In total, sales revenues to date amount to 26.5 billion tenge, including 465.5 million tenge in exports. More than 6 billion Tenge in tax payments have been paid to the budget. Co-financing amounts to about 6.8 billion tenge. The total contribution to the scientific and technical development of the country is about 55.1 billion tenge.

Analyzing the portfolio of 152 implemented projects, it can be noted that, for the most part, grant recipients are business representatives, while universities have a lower result. A similar picture can be seen with the indicators for sales of finished innovative products and services, where the highest result is shown by business representatives - 79%, universities show only 4.5%, research institutes - 5% and research and production centres - just over 11%.

"Such a picture confirms the need to strengthen work on the integration of science and business, when business representatives can help scientists to achieve maximum results in the implementation of projects for the commercialization of RNTD, creating new production, and at the same time ensuring the organization of new jobs, tax revenues to the budget, etc.," Nurbek said.

Taking into account the practical experience and indicators of the national project "Technological leapfrogging through digitalisation, science and innovation", as well as all the problems and suggestions arising during implementation, the tender documentation is updated annually with new requirements.

Grants for commercialisation of RNTD are awarded on a competitive basis. The operator is the JSC Science Foundation.

The process of project selection during the call for grant funding of S&T results is quite transparent. It consists of standard stages that are almost identical to those of other grant funding competitions - from the receipt of applications, eligibility checks, expert evaluation, etc. to the decision by the specialised National Scientific Council for Commercialisation, established in 2022.

Also, according to the minister, the amount of funding for 2023-2025 has doubled, while the operating costs have remained at the same level as in 2020-2022.

During his speech, the Minister drew attention to a number of major problems hindering technological breakthroughs through the commercialisation of scientific developments. These include the lack of business competencies among scientists; weak links between science and business; the problem of finding private funding; and the low level of implementation of domestic innovations in production.

As a consequence, there is a tendency for low numbers of applications, in the regions.

"As part of the protocol order of the interdepartmental commission, five road maps have been developed and work is being done with the Ministry of Agriculture, Higher Education, Ministry of Energy, as well as Ministry of Infrastructural Development to implement the results of commercialisation projects in the industry production," Nurbek said.

According to him, the Business Partners Club continues to work to promote the integration of science and business. The Minister also drew attention to one project that could be mentioned as a successful case for commercialisation of scientific results. This is a project on development, creation and serial production of generators based on safe, efficient wind energy implemented by KB Tree Energy LLP. The results of the project (solar-wind power sources) are installed in autonomous video surveillance systems.

At the moment, multi-million euro sales are underway. In addition, a contract has been signed with Bulgaria's Torus BG, which will help to attract EUR 57 million in investments for the construction of a fully autonomous plant in the Alatau Innovative Technologies Park FEZ in Almaty to produce transformers and power plants under the green energy umbrella.

Within the framework of grants for commercialisation of RNTSD of the Science Foundation, 3 projects are being implemented, which are the result of long-term scientific research of scientists of the Scientific and Production Centre for Microbiology and Virology LLP and Industrial Microbiology LLP:

1. Production of the antifungal medicinal product Roseofungin-AS

2. Production of a fermented drink based on natural dairy whey

3. Production of a domestic probiotic

According to the minister, these projects are a shining example of innovative domestic developments that are in demand on the market.

Support for R&D projects in the country is provided through grant and programme-targeted financing. Grants for commercialisation of the results of scientific, scientific and technical activities have their stage after Grant and Programme-targeted financing projects and programmes, as their logical continuation and bringing the developments to production and business.

"We believe that it is necessary to introduce a definition of the technological readiness level (TRL) of developments and the status of research institutes at the level of application and the final result of research projects and programmes, to clearly determine what type of state support (GF, PCF, Grants for commercialisation or others) the applicant needs," Nurbek said.

At the anniversary session of the National Academy of Sciences in June 2022, the President noted that a programme to support technoparks at universities will be launched. As part of the implementation of the President's election programme "A Fair Kazakhstan - for All and for Everyone. Now and forever", according to the rules of programme-targeted financing, on a competitive basis appropriate funding will be allocated for the development of science and technology parks at universities. The early experience of creating such technoparks has shown that when assessing their activities, the first thing to be taken into account is their degree of self-sufficiency and readiness to provide services to a wide range of consumers. At the same time, the state will support their innovation potential to provide knowledge-intensive services (engineering, consulting, information, etc.).  The unified coordination will be assigned to the Foundation for Science, through the support for technoparks and the implementation of development and acceleration programmes. In addition, the Ministry is considering introducing a new form of grant financing for the development of science and innovation infrastructure as part of legislative initiatives to further support the relevance of technology parks and research institutes.

Once the necessary regulations have been drafted, it is proposed that technology parks be supported through the administration of the Science Foundation JSC.

Thus, the Minister noted that despite certain shortcomings there are positive results in the commercialisation of scientific results. In this context, to summarise the presentation, a number of actions required for implementation can be highlighted as follows:

1. To introduce the practice of determining the technological readiness level (TRL) of ideas and developments of universities, scientific organisations and start-up companies for taking specific measures of state support (GF, PCF, Grants for commercialisation of RNTD, Technoparks), i.e. to include in the tender documentation as part of the terms of reference.

2. To complement and ensure the implementation of the roadmaps of the line ministries for the promotion of the products of the participants in the commercialisation projects on an ongoing basis.

3. To approve in due course the Methodology for determining the cost of services rendered within the framework of grants for the commercialisation of RSTDP at the expense of the RB

4 Identify the Science Foundation as the Business Acceleration Programme Operator for the 2025 Income Generation Programme

5. In order to effectively implement the tasks set, replenish the share capital of the Science Foundation in accordance with the established procedure

In turn, Professor Amankeldy Sadanov, Director General of the Scientific and Production Centre for Microbiology and Virology, spoke about the achievements of microbiology and virology in practice and the principles of commercialisation of science on the example of a single enterprise.

The consortium of the Scientific and Production Centre for Microbiology and Virology LLP and Industrial Microbiology LLP is a major scientific and production association with scientific accreditation, a licence for pharmaceutical activities and all legal documents for the marketing of medical and biological products.

"The work of the Consortium is designed to implement the full cycle of 'scientific research, technology development, introduction into production - commercialisation'. To achieve this, the Industrial Microbiology microbiological plant for the production of biological and medical preparations has been set up at the Centre and is equipped with the latest high-tech equipment," Sadanov said.

According to the head of the consortium, the current problems with commercialisation are as follows:

• When financing commercialisation projects, attention should be paid to the deep scientific background and results of the applicants (basic and applied research) through the introduction of requirements in the tender documents;
• The Roadmaps for Agriculture (crop production, plant protection, veterinary, livestock, food industry and ecology) need to be updated to include biopreparations;
• State support is needed to update the procurement list for medicines and medical devices within the Guaranteed Amount of Free Medical Care (GFMC) with the possibility of including developed medicines.

As Sadanov further noted, the pharmaceutical market is an important sector of any country's economy, which serves as a criterion of its economic and social development and an indicator of the innovativeness of the economy. Today, the real share of domestic drugs on the Kazakhstani market is only about 11%, which is almost half the level recommended by the WHO to ensure the country's strategic security. At the same time, domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers produce simple medicines - antiseptics and the so-called Galenic preparations (tinctures and extracts from plant raw materials), or generic drugs on the basis of substances purchased abroad. Many domestic pharmaceutical companies are only involved in tabletting imported substances.

The fact that the pharmaceutical market in Kazakhstan is almost 99% occupied by imported products is evidence of the catastrophic underdevelopment of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. And yet providing the country with its own medicines is not only a health and economic problem, but also an issue of national security. 

"The Consortium has developed and organised the production of the only domestic original medical product, Roseofungin-AS. This is a broad-spectrum drug for the treatment of superficial mycoses. The main advantage of the drug compared to imported analogues is the absence of resistant forms of pathogens, a short course and high efficiency of treatment," Sadanov said.

According to him, in 2017 the drug "Roseofungin-AS" was included in the state register of medicines of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in 2018 the drug "Roseofungin-AS" was included in the list of medicines of clinical protocol for diagnosis and treatment of dermatophytosis of MoH RK for 2019-2023. In 2019, the drug "Roseofungin-AS" is included in the Kazakhstan National Drug Formulary (KNF) Currently, it is actively marketed through pharmacy networks of the Republic.

Acute intestinal infections (CAIs) are another urgent public health problem in all countries, including Kazakhstan. Widespread prevalence, high frequency of development of moderate and severe forms, complications, determine the need to find ways to optimize the tactics of treatment of this group of diseases. Currently, on the Kazakhstan market there are many probiotic drugs based on living microorganisms, but all of them are imported. To solve the problem of import substitution the Centre, according to Mr Sadanov, has developed a domestic medicine "AS-Probionorm" with a broad spectrum of action against inflammatory and infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

It has been proved that AS-Probionorm contains probiotic bacteria that are highly active against intestinal pathogens, synthesise B vitamins, essential amino acids and hydrolytic enzymes, stimulate the human immune system and, if necessary, it can be used in combination therapy with antibiotics.

Preclinical trials of AS-Probionorm revealed high efficacy and safety of its use, activity against the main causative agents of acute intestinal infections: Escherichia, Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus, positive dynamics in the intestinal microbiota of animals was established. AS-Probionorm has been approved for the first phase of clinical trials.

"There is no established scheme for the utilisation of milk whey in Kazakhstan. The vast majority of enterprises discharge whey into wastewater, littering the environment and losing a biologically valuable product. There are plans to launch the production of Lacto-AC sour-milk drink in all regions of Kazakhstan to solve the environmental problem and increase profits from the return of previously discarded products," Sadanov said.

The implementation of the developed method of producing the domestic sour-milk drink "Lacto-AC" on the basis of milk whey will increase the profitability of milk processing enterprises, provide a closed cycle of production of dairy products, eliminate the formation of waste milk industry and will contribute to the rational use of natural resources.

Sadanov also said that for the first time in Kazakhstan, technologies have been developed and production of new domestic biopreparations for agriculture, environmental protection and veterinary medicine of more than 11 names has been organised, with annual sales of 60-70 tonnes:

• biopreparations for crop production - to replace mineral nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers with biological ones, increase germination, stimulate growth and development of crops;
• livestock biopreparations - for preserving fodder, preserving livestock and increasing productivity when fattening farm animals;
• a biopreparation for cleaning the environment from oil pollution.

However, according to the professor, production growth is currently limited by the plant's production capacity.

Since January 01, 2022, production of drugs is permitted only under GMP standards and norms, so for further production and increase of capacity of this plant, bringing it into compliance with the above regulations, we plan to start construction of a new domestic pharmaceutical complex in March 2023. Construction of the complex will be carried out at our own expense on the existing land plot at the existing plant in the city of Almaty.

"All of the abovementioned points to the need to create a site for the production of domestic original drugs according to GMP requirements, solving the problem of import substitution, expanding the range and significantly increasing production volumes, which will provide an opportunity to bring many applied developments of Kazakhstan scientists to the consumer on the basis of this plant," Sadanov summed up the speech.