The first innovative cell therapy and personalised medicine centre in the Baltic States has opened at Vilnius City Innovation Industrial Park. The Northway Group invested €61 million in the Stem Cell Research Centre project.
The centre is expected to employ approximately 100 life sciences professionals and advance technologies that seemed impossible only a little over a decade ago – cell therapies developed for individual patients, personalised therapeutic vaccines, regenerative medicine and 3D human tissue printing technologies.
Built in Vilnius in just over a year, it is one of the most advanced centres of its kind in the world, enabling the development of medical technologies that are changing our very understanding of what a medicine can be. In advanced therapies, a patient’s own cell can become the medicine: it is collected from the patient, processed or modified in a specialised laboratory and used to fight disease. This is personalised medicine, where a therapy is developed for a specific patient.
The opening also marks a symbolic milestone for Kamieninių ląstelių tyrimų centras (Stem Cell Research Centre), the company operating the new facility, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. Founded in 2011 by Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, the company has spent more than a decade building practical experience in good manufacturing practice environments and systematically developing its expertise in cell technologies.
“Fifteen years ago, we did not have a €61 million center – we had people and ambition. Over the years, we have built practical experience, grown our team, and advanced our cell technology capabilities. Today, we are systematically taking all of this to an entirely new scale. What seemed like the future of medicine 15 years ago is now being created here in Lithuania,” says Prof. Vladas Algirdas Bumelis, founder of the Northway Group.
The significance of the centre for Lithuania is also highlighted by the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda.
“This center is about people. About scientists who will be able to stay in Lithuania and work with technologies that are shaping the future of medicine. About patients for whom personalized medicine is not an abstract concept, but a real treatment option. And about all of us as a country, proving that we can be not only observers, but creators at the global frontier of science,” says President Gitanas Nausėda.
The new centre will operate up to 20 independent manufacturing lines that comply with good manufacturing practice requirements – stringent international standards ensuring the quality and safety of medicinal products. It features quality control laboratories, advanced cleanroom systems and segregated infrastructure designed for the manufacturing of highly sensitive cell therapies.
In personalised therapies, an individual manufacturing process may be dedicated to a single patient – their cells and their disease.
“We are accustomed to traditional pharmaceutical manufacturing, where a single process produces medicines for large numbers of patients. Here, in some cases, an entire manufacturing process may be dedicated to just one person. It is a completely different pharmaceutical model – and this is precisely the kind of medicine this center was built for,” says Prof. Bumelis.
The new centre begins operations with its first customers already on board and contracts in place for the development and manufacturing of advanced therapies. Its services are aimed at university hospitals, international biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and research centres.
Northway’s investment also contributes to Lithuania’s ambition for the life sciences sector to account for 5% of the country’s GDP by 2030.
“Today, Lithuania is not only a user of advanced technologies, but also a country where they are created and developed. The opening of the BIO CITY centre is an important step in strengthening Lithuania’s biomedical ecosystem and our position in the international market. We have a strong foundation for the sector’s continued growth: Lithuania is home to highly qualified professionals in biomedicine, medicine and science, while growing investment demonstrates international confidence in our potential,” says Edvinas Grikšas, Minister of the Economy and Innovation.
According to Dr Gediminas Pauliukevičius, CEO of Northtown Vilnius, the bold BIO CITY vision extends far beyond investment figures and economic value.
“Projects of this scale strengthen Lithuania’s position among countries capable of shaping the future of global biotechnology. They open new opportunities to bring together world-class knowledge and talent, forge international partnerships and tackle challenges addressed only by the world’s leading life sciences centres. With these opportunities comes greater responsibility – to turn them into lasting value for Lithuania and the industry as a whole,” he says.
The new centre is part of the BIO CITY ecosystem being developed by Northway. BIO CITY I is home to biologics development and manufacturing centres, BIO CITY II to the gene therapy centre, and BIO CITY III to the cell therapy and personalised medicine centre. Together, they bring biologics, gene therapy and cell therapy expertise into a single ecosystem in Vilnius.
Source
https://northtownvilnius.lt/en/2026/09/04/first-in-the-baltics-state-of-the-art-cell-therapy-and-personalised-medicine-centre-opens-at-vciip/ Mantas Gudzinevicius Mindaugo-Mikuleno
