New Czech biotechnological centre to open in Ostrava

Ostrava, North Moravia, March 19 (CTK) - A biotechnological park for the research into and development of procedures and medicines using human cells will be opened in the complex of the Ostrava Teaching Hospital by mid-2014, Andrea Gutova, from the PrimeCell firm building the facility, told CTK Tuesday.

The park, which is to be completed in December, is to cost about one billion crowns.

The centre will develop medicines for the treatment of serious incurable diseases, such as serious ischaemic heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis.

The biomedical centre called 4MEDia, situated on the area of 6500 square metres, will employ some 150 researchers in the fields of biology, medicine and materials engineering.

The construction costs are put at 700 million crowns and some 300,000 crowns are to be spent on the equipment, Gutova said.

PrimeCell has received a 400-million-crown subsidy from the European Union for the project. It cooperates with the Teaching Hospital and the Health Institute in Ostrava, Gutova added.

The cooperation will enable close links between scientific and academic centres and commercial entities that will help complete the development of medical products, launch their costly clinical trials, which might last for years, and subsequently their use in patients' treatment, Gutova added.

PrimeCell focuses on regenerative medicine and modern therapeutical methods. It is developing and producing medicines.

The firm cooperates with over 20 research institutes, universities and teaching hospitals on research, development and clinical trials.