The business programme of the Drug Security Forum included the session ‘The Evolution of the Procurement System: Global Trends and Technologies’, which focused on modernizing the current system of public drug procurements.
The session was attended by Etleva Kadilli, Director of the Supply Division of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); Elena Astapenko, Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Provision and Regulation of the Circulation of Medical Devices at the Russian Ministry of Health; Timofey Nizhegorodtsev, Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service; Viktor Dmitriev, General Manager of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers; Kirill Danishevskiy, Market Access Director at Takeda Russia; and Vitaly Dembrovsky, Director of Corporate Affairs for Healthcare and Public Health, Russia, and Eurasia at AstraZeneca. The session was moderated by Vitaliy Omelyanovskiy, General Director of the Centre for Healthcare Quality Assessment and Control at the Russian Ministry of Health.
Continuity of supply, and sufficiency of drugs for all citizens, including in situations of exponentially growing demand, are key to a country’s drug security. In turn, drug security depends on how effective the government drug procurement system is.
The meeting participants discussed what factors dictate the need to modernize the current government procurement system, what international practices could be applied to optimize the current government procurement system from the point of view of preventing drug deficits in all regions of the Russian Federation, what risks centralizing drug supply might entail, and what supporting decisions in healthcare and related areas need to be made in order to successfully modernize the procurement system.
“At present, several areas are being considered for modernizing the system of public procurements and drug supply for citizens, including the transition to a centralized procurement system. The main goal of all the transformations is to fully provide citizens with drugs, regardless of the region where they reside, and to also prevent drug shortages,” said Viktor Dmitriev, General Manager of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.
“Effective procurements in terms of monitoring the effectiveness of healthcare spending are impossible without an effective technology assessment system. Given the adoption of the National Healthcare Project and federal projects, a technology assessment should also include an assessment of the impact on the implementation of these projects since situations are possible when a drug meets the requirements for inclusion in the lists, but at the same time cannot affect the achievement of the goals of federal projects simply because it does not have the appropriate properties, for example, it does not affect mortality. An integrated approach should be taken to the assessment of healthcare technologies from the level of assessment methodologies during their inclusion in restrictive lists to admission to specific state programmes and the monitoring of their results,” said Vitaly Dembrovsky, Director of Corporate Affairs for Healthcare and Public Health, Russia, and Eurasia at AstraZeneca.
“As world practice shows, the use of innovative contract models in the system of public drug procurement, such as risk sharing, cost sharing, and long-term contracts with manufacturers of essential drugs, significantly increases the availability of therapy for patients and contributes to the effective use of public funding. Diseases do not recognize borders, so there should be as few barriers to treating and saving patients as possible,” said Kirill Danishevskiy, Market Access Director at Takeda Russia.
The Drug Security Forum was held with the support of the Russian Ministry of Health and the Subcommittee on the Circulation of Medicines and Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry of the State Duma’s Health Protection Committee. The event was organized by the Roscongress Foundation and the Content Foundation for the Development of Expert and Analytical Activities. The forum took place on the opening day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The session was supported by AstraZeneca.
