The Pharmaceutical Applied Research Centre (the Parc) officially commenced operation on Tuesday, 5 March 2019. The PARC is bringing scientists together with leading pharmaceutical and academic specialists who are jointly working on acceleration of the innovation process in the area of drug research and development. To mark this occasion, the Prague headquarters of Zentiva hosted the first edition of The Parc Awards recognising talented students who are already collaborating with the centre. CzechInvest CEO Silvana Jirotková spoke at the event.
The basic idea leading to the establishment of the Parc was laid out by representatives of Zentiva, the University of Chemistry and Technology, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Biotechnology and Biomedical Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University in spring 2017, when they met at CzechInvest’s headquarters in Prague. They agreed that the Czech Republic was painfully lacking a place where top-level basic research of new medicines could be transformed into realistically applicable and manufacturable pharmaceutical products and drugs. Individual institutions had previously commenced informal collaboration in 2014.
The Parc enables postgraduate students to gain experience in solid-phase chemistry, pharmaceutical technology, biopharmacy and clinical research. In addition to that, the centre collaborates with academic partners throughout Europe, thanks to which it can offer a mentoring programme in which students receive guidance from the best scientists from the worlds of academia and industry, who share with them their specialist knowledge and provide them with support in their everyday activities. Twenty-five postgraduate students are currently participating in the programme.
The centre is officially starting operations at the time when the government of the Czech Republic has introduced the Innovation Strategy of the Czech Republic 2019-2030, which considers science, research and innovation to be key national priorities that will help the Czech Republic become an innovation leader. The Parc can be considered one of the institutions that is capable of contributing to the fulfilment of these endeavours, as it is already turning out expertise, graduates, technologies and patent applications.
More information is available in the attached press release and at www.theparc.eu.