"At the beginning of 1971, a factory of enzyme preparations, the first of five built in the territory of the then USSR, started operating in Vilnius. In the summer of the same year, the development of a research center began at this plant. As a result, today we have a strong biotechnology industry, which is one of the most productive and fastest growing industries in our country.
At the time the enzyme plant was set up, the term "biotechnology" was not yet used. It spread later, around 1980, with the advancement of life sciences and related industries. The government of the Soviet Union decided to start the development of production and use of enzymes and research in 1962 . It was decided to build five enzyme factories in the USSR: three in Russia, one in Kazakhstan, and a fifth in Lithuania, Vilnius.
The French helped here: production technology and equipment for the future factory were bought from the French companies Rapidas and Nordon.
The construction of the Vilnius enzyme preparation plant started in 1968 and was completed in 1970. In late 1971, the factory began operations.
It had experimental and production units that produced four products based on technology purchased from France: one enzyme that breaks down proteins and the other three amylolytic, which breaks down starch.
After that, the production of new products, which were already developed in the USSR, was gradually started in the factory in 1971. The establishment of a research center was started in 2006, to which the head of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of Vilnius University, dr. Antanas Glemža was invited to be a leader. In 1972 this center acquired the status of a central research laboratory.
In 1975 the Union Institute of Applied Enzymology was established on the basis of this laboratory, which later became the Institute of Biotechnology (now an integral part of VU GMC). This research institution was immediately given the high rank of a union institute, which led to both increased funding and more opportunities.
The institute grew rapidly, employing about 800 people before Lithuania regained its independence. After our country regained its independence, an institute of this size became clearly too large, as it was created to serve the entire USSR. So some of the staff had to leave, the rest of the institute gradually set up budding companies.
The following companies are still operating successfully today: Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, Teva Baltics, Biok Laboratory, Biocentras, Biopolis. No new biotechnology companies have appeared in Lithuania for about a decade.
Later, the slow growth of the sector began, and recently the sector has been growing rapidly, with start-ups.
If in 1971 a factory of enzyme preparations would not have appeared in Vilnius, today there would probably be neither the Institute of Biotechnology nor the previously mentioned companies. Our biotechnology industry would be weak, as in most countries. According to the weight of the biotechnology sector in the economy, Lithuania is among the leading countries in Europe and the world. For example, in 2013 biotechnology revenue accounted for 1.38 percent Lithuania's GDP, while the European Union average was only 0.12 percent that year."
The plant was created using technologies and equipment from France and other Western countries purchased for Russian oil dollars, as well as the work of the Lithuanian people. After the Russians withdrew from Lithuania, a handful of privileged people laid off most of the employees who worked in biotechnology, and the property was privatized under the guise of budding companies.
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