Britain's fastest-growing bio-technology firms are flocking to Russia to run clinical trials more cheaply and quickly than they can in the West, according to This is MONEY.

The Kremlin is providing generous backing for Rusnano, a nanotechnology venture fund. It is also luring biotech firms in a bid to establish Russia as a leading center for pharmaceutical research and development.

It takes “half the time and one tenth of the cost” to run clinical trials in Russia, according to the boss of Xenetic Biosciences. The London-based firm is developing 12 drugs in Russia with Anglo-Russian collaboration and Rusnano funding.

Scott Maguire, chief executive of Xenetic, said, “Regulators do not take as much time to make a decision in Russia and the data you need to go into a trial is not as extensive as in Britain and the US.”

“More biotechs will consider taking this route. Where else are companies going to get the tens of millions of pounds required to run clinical trials?” said Maguire.