We Made a New Year Wish to Become Skolkovo Residents
Interview of the Vetstem’s CEO Alexander Reshetnyov and Chief Research Officer Ekaterina Viktorova.
Vetstem’s core competence is regenerative medicine in veterinary. As this area is rather unexplored in Russia, our mission is to show to the vet specialists this new efficient therapeutic method.
How we became the Skolkovo residents
Ekaterina: We wanted to become Skolkovo residents for a long time. It was also necessary for our project to grow, as residents have a lot of benefits.
And we heard about many success stories from other teams. In December we started preparing to apply to become the project participants and on December 31, 2021 we lodged our application. In fact, this was our New Year wish.
Aleksandr: Originally we were focused on the regenerative medicine, but at some point we decided to invent a more conventional pharmaceutical product. This is how we came to the idea of having our own laboratory. It is where we are now, and where we do our chemical and pharmaceutical tests.
We are proud of our innovative medicine Ipecon for the treatment of infectious peritonitis in cats. This disease can be caused by a feline coronavirus, its clinic manifestations are similar to human ones: problems with the gastrointestinal tract or with the central nervous system. Previously cats with this diagnosis were simply mercy killed. We successfully synthesized a medicine and proved its therapeutic capability.
We have an example where for the treatment of a cat diagnosed with “infectious peritonitis”, a researcher therapist immediately began to use “Ipecon”. After only two weeks of treatment, the cat felt much better - it could be seen both from the behavior of the animal and from the clinical performance. At 84 days, the treatment admittedly takes quite a while, but now it’s coming to the final stage. The owner is happy about his pet’s progress, and so are we.
Skolkovo infrastructure
Aleksandr: There are plenty of companies around us who deal with pharmaceutical development and analysis, but we haven’t seen any veterinary projects yet. For example, we get on well with Sigma Lab, we use their lyophilisation services, as we don’t have the necessary equipment.
Skolkovo offers good infrastructure and a lot of space. In contrast to other business centers in Moscow, here you don’t have to wait for 15 minutes for the elevator to arrive during the peak hours. In terms of the atmosphere, I would compare it to the Google’s offices. You can come to any person you meet in a hallway, and ask them about their company, have a nice conversation and even find some similarities in your work. Skolkovo is a nice site both to establish an office and for communication.
Ekaterina: When you enter the building for the first time, you feel the spirit of success, achieving goals and focusing on the results.
Aleksandr: And I do like the transport accessibility. You can use public transport. Although Skolkovo is located on the outskirts of Moscow, sometimes it takes less time to get to the city center than from other districts inside the Moscow Ring Road. The air here is so fresh, the famous Rublyovka forest is near. Apartments are really cool. I would like to be living here!
Ekaterina: As a mother, I can add that in Skolkovo there is great infrastructure for families with children. On top of that, your child can have both the general and additional education.
How it all works in Skolkovo
Aleksandr: Beginning from October we will have nine employees. Five of them are employed at Skolkovo. They are engaged in chemical and pharmaceutical development. We also work here with all the company’s documents. Ekaterina is a cell biologist, she works in another laboratory, at a research institute, but she often comes here to help with various tasks.
Ekaterina: In the future we would like to move our second laboratory to Skolkovo as well. Working at the research institute and at the Skolkovo Technopark are two completely different things. Here the approach is different, working environment is comfortable. But it’s difficult for a new startup to operate two laboratories at once. Still, I am sure we will, in the future. It is important for us to be close to each other.
Aleksandr: It has its downsides, naturally. First of all, bureaucracy. A long and convoluted chain of approvals, too many managerial stages. But, you know, it is what it is.
Future plans
Aleksandr: In five years we see our company doing human medicine.
Ekaterina: We are planning to start with human regenerative medicine and grow in veterinary pharmaceuticals. There are lots of generics in Russia, while only a few domestically made medications.
Aleksandr: Besides, since February 2022 Russia has been facing the deficit of anesthetic medications for veterinary applications. We want to offer replacement solutions, both to the market and to the medical community. We are working on import substitution solutions. We are developing an anesthetic medication which can be used in smaller dosages as a sedative drug for dogs and cats in surgery application. Our offer to the market includes products which are not available in Russia now. So we are creating both the demand and the supply.
Ekaterina: At this point, we are looking not only at the Russian, but also at CIS market.
Of course, we want to make profit, but we are planning to invest most of our proceeds into further development. We are currently working on a unique antivirus medication, and we believe we are creating the future.