The ‘Ensuring Drug Security’ Russian Pharmaceutical Forum featured an expert discussion on the development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. The event was organized by the Roscongress Foundation and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation with the support of the Subcommittee on the Circulation of Medicines and the Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on Health Protection. The Forum is held each year and is the leading platform for discussions about the pharmaceutical industry’s business agenda.
The policy of import substitution was established back in the early stages of development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry. Today, in the context of global challenges, the issue of drug security is no longer a theory, but a modern Russian reality. The national pharmaceutical industry is faced with the task of developing timely strategies to respond to the current agenda, the highest priority requirements of which include ensuring continuity of supply of strategically important medicines and medical devices, achieving technological sovereignty for the industry, and maintaining competitiveness in foreign markets, which the biggest Russian manufacturers have successfully achieved.
The session was moderated by the Head of the Expert Council for Regulating the Circulation of Medicines and Medical Devices of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Committee on Health Protection Alexandr Petrov. The participants included Russian First Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Victor Fisenko, Director of the Department of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Dmitry Galkin, VEB.RF First Deputy Chairman Alexander Braverman; PSK Pharma Director General Evgeniya Shapiro, and Member of the SIBUR Management Board and Managing Director for Development and Innovation Darya Borisova, among others.
“The strategy of PSK Pharma, which includes the full production cycle, as it has been understood in recent years (i.e., the release of its own substances for ready-made drugs), was formulated even before it became mainstream. Today, the company’s facilities are ready to produce [active pharmaceutical ingredient] for chemical drugs,” Shapiro said. “In addition, we are investing in the development of the production of substances for biotechnological preparations. The project is being implemented with the support of the Russian Industry Development Fund. Genetically engineered biotechnological preparations are a rather expensive and technologically complex thing. There are very few companies today that are capable of producing drugs for targeted therapies that can defeat cancer, for example. But the future of the pharmaceutical industry is precisely in biotechnologies. So we are actively developing this area. We are already producing five drugs, including ones to treat rheumatoid arthritis. In the near future, we will start implementing a project to produce gelatine capsules that are forms for finished drugs. I think we should pay attention to the production of related and raw materials for finished dosage forms.”
The participants discussed which strategies they would choose and how consistent they would be with the government’s needs, whether there is a need to intensify production cycles, what barriers at this stage are hindering the achievement of technological sovereignty, and what measures could now support the development of high-tech exports amidst sanctions.
