Partnership between CE and Brazil in the eyes of Norberto Prestes - manager at Brasil Biotechnology

Do you think that companies from CE biosector can be interesting business partners for Brazilian enterprises?

Norberto Prestes: Brazil is a global player: we are leaders in ethanol research and production; scientific advances have transformed agriculture in the last few decades, e.g. soya and sugar cane; and cutting-edge Brazilian medicine, coupled with a structured public healthcare system, provides the conditions for the development of the country’s health sector.

Brazil is considered to be a “mega” bio-diverse country. It is estimated to house 13% of all species existing on Earth, and the most surprising thing is that only 10% of this natural heritage is known today. Thus, stimuli for innovation based on the use of our biodiversity.

Brazil is a huge market for health and agricultural products. It also has great potential in new biomaterials, bioenergy and environment technologies. That’s why I think it is a great opportunity for companies from CE.

What are, in your opinion, the main similarities and differences between those two biosectors? Do you think any of them might be especially beneficial for the potential future cooperation?

Most of the Brazilian companies are young and micro- or small-sized and rely upon highly educated professionals (a high percentage of MScs and PhDs). Concerning the international trade, a minority of companies export. On the other hand, the majority imports, especially reagents for the production and development of technology.

In CE, according to the data I checked, most companies are relatively young and attach great importance to research and development activities. In all these countries, there are micro-enterprises that are looking for partnership abroad.

Another common characteristic of both sectors is their large size. It can become a huge opportunity for new businesses because people 'speak the same language'.

According to a recently-published study, in Brazil the industry is made up of less than 300 small companies focused on the areas of human and animal health, reagents, agriculture, environment and bioenergy. Brazilian biotech companies are still in their infancy. Most have been created by the entrepreneurial efforts of scientists with no experience in business or in marketing. The majority of these companies is located in university incubators, mainly concentrated in the Southeast region of Brazil, and depends on government financing.

This can be an opportunity for all countries to restart the partnership between the governments. We could force the connection between the different governments of CE and Brazil (South American) at BioForum 2014 and discuss about new agreements to invest in the official program to help to develop new technology exchanging knowledge using federal money, especially because majority of the companies are small. We are almost in the same financial and technological situation.

What Brazilian companies can offer to enterprises from CE and what they are looking for in our region?

We can offer knowledge about the Brazil bio-business environment. The regulatory aspect for any biotech product or service in Brazil is very complex. Establishing partnership with Brazilian company can help the CE companies to get faster in to the market. Additionally, we can offer knowledge about biofuels, biomaterials etc.. On the other side, the CE companies can offer business skills for our companies and great infrastructure to developed new technologies in the early stage. Buying sophisticated machine to make biotech research in Brazil is very expensive. They are mostly imported and the tax for it is very high. I think it is much cheaper for the CE companies to have a great infrastructure in the lab because you are part of EU.

Do you think that a long distance between South America and CE will be a big problem limiting cooperation, or maybe it will actually attract additional interest to cooperate with such exotic partners from other side of the globe?

No! It is a great opportunity for everyone to exchange knowledge. In my opinion biotechnology has only one chance to be successful: is making partnership. Brazil has developed many things in this sector. We have many similar cultural aspects. It makes everything easier. Some Polish investors are building huge Science Park in the North of Brazil. This can be a perfect land to be in! We speak the same language in other side of the globe.

by Tomasz Domagała