Russia’s biotech innovations are more Star Trek than Star Wars

Although information technology was once the darling of Russia’s innovation sector, a sanctions-flecked economic slowdown is pushing manufacturing and biomedicine startups to the fore — and thankfully the results are more “Star Trek” than “Star Wars.”

At a startup contest at last week’s Open Innovations Forum organized by the Russian Venture Company and Moscow’s Center for Innovative Development, inventors of robotized industrial solutions and new biomedical products took most of the top prizes, entitling them to a million rubles ($25,000) each in cash and the active interest of venture investors.