Aid from OPEI Helped to Build a Research and Development Centre for Medical Nano-Biotechnology in the Pardubice Region

In total, the company based in Dolní Dobrouči in the Orlické hory foothills invested CZK 117 million in the expansion and completion of the research centre. Thanks to this successful project, the company can proceed with research and development at the highest level.

“The overall objective of the Operational Programme Enterprise and Industry is to increase the competitiveness of the Czech economy. The project of expansion and completion of the research and development centre for medical nano-biotechnology is evidence of this,” says Minister of Industry and Trade Martin Kuba.

“The Potential Programme, from which aid for the project was obtained, helps to expand and build up the research and development capacities of companies, whose results are subsequently used in production,” explains Petr Očko, director of the EU Funds, Research and Development Section of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, adding: “So far, more than CZK 1.7 billion has been disbursed from the Potential Programme.”

“The project of CPN (now known as Contipro Biotech s.r.o.) was awarded second place in the Business Project of the Year 2010 competition, whose winners we announced together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Association for Foreign Investment in September last year,” says Miroslav Křížek, CEO of CzechInvest, adding that the holding company of which Contipro is a part is one of the most successful applicants for aid from OPEI in the Pardubice region, as it has a total of eleven projects with a signed decision on the provision of aid.

“Without investments in research and development, it is impossible to do business in this sector. The provided aid has greatly helped us in our plans and I can’t imagine where we would be today without it,” Vladimír Velebný, director of Contipro Biotech, adding: “Some businesspeople complain about the high administrative demands of the programme. However, we complete and submit all applications ourselves without external advisors, only in cooperation with CzechInvest’s regional office.”

The Contipro Group holding company has been involved in research, development and biotechnological production of active ingredients for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries for more than twenty years. The company is among the world’s leading producers of hyaluronic acid and applications derived from it and exports its products to more than fifty countries.

For more information please contact the CzechInvest Press Centre

Štěpánka Filipová, spokesperson, phone: +420 296 342 538, stepanka.filipova@czechinvest.org

Contact to Ministry of Industry and Trade:

Veronika Forejtová, spokesperson , phone: +420 224 853 291, forejtova@mpo.cz, press@mpo.cz 

Contact to Contipro Biotech:

Bc. Hana Šimková, project contact person, phone: +420 467 070 301, hana.simkova@contipro.com

CzechInvest is celebrating its 20th anniversary!

CzechInvest has been supporting the inflow of foreign direct investments to the Czech Republic for twenty years already. Since its establishment in 1992, the agency has mediated 1,798 investment projects with the total value of more than CZK 715 billion, thanks to which nearly a quarter of a million new jobs have been created. CzechInvest contributes to improving the overall business environment in the Czech Republic and strives to increase the competitiveness of the Czech economy in changing conditions. Since 2004, the agency has also operated as the implementation body for EU structural funds and has regional offices staffed by specialists in every regional capital in the Czech Republic. CzechInvest’s CEO, Miroslav Křížek, was named Manager of the Year 2011 in the Business and Public Services sector.