Life Sciences in Latvia: A very important emerging sector

Life sciences have a long and rich history in Latvia. Today, the life sciences sector in Latvia continues to make remarkable achievements.

The life sciences sector is a very important emerging sector for Latvia due to its size and also compared to other Baltic countries. It has been experiencing very high growth in value added both in pharmaceuticals and medical devices. It has not increased as much in employment, therefore gaining in productivity. It is an important sector for an export oriented country such as Latvia, and also due to the important service it provides to all industrial sectors.

The R&D on red biotechnologies (synthesized pharmaceuticals), white biotechnologies (industrial purposes), and green biotechnologies pharmaceuticals has a high growth potential. This is due its location in the Baltics, close ties to Russia, high investment rates, and competitiveness, combined with the low importance of the sector to its neighbours.

Latvia’s key strengths in the life sciences sector are its:

• Experience in the sector
• Strength in pharmaceuticals
• Most competitive workforce in medical devices
• Very competitive labour force in R&D
• High investment rate in R&D

We have great experience attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2009, 28.8m€ were invested in the life sciences sector.

To learn more about the Latvian Life Science sector please follow the link below.

Latvian Life Science sector