Test tube assembly

Foreign pharmaceutical companies are invited to become domestic producers

The revival of the domestic pharmaceutical industry , apparently, will occur thanks to the massive construction of so-called “test tube assembly” workshops. The fact that the Russian authorities are waiting for foreign pharmaceutical giants to come to our country was confirmed yesterday by the heads of several departments, speaking at the opening of a plant of the French company Servier in the Podolsk region of the Moscow region. The heads of the federal services subordinate to the Ministry of Health and Social Development did not hide the fact that they were ready to provide foreigners with all the preferences accorded to Russian companies. “We are protecting the domestic manufacturer,” Andrei Mladentsev, deputy head of Roszdravnadzor, told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. “Now Servier also falls into this category.”

The readiness of officials to accept production facilities built by foreigners as “indigenous” is quite understandable - after all, the demand to quickly revive the domestic pharmaceutical industry comes from President Vladimir Putin, who is not too happy with the bias towards imports in the pharmaceutical market. For the right to be considered a Russian manufacturer, a foreign company has already paid about 40 million euros - this is exactly how much was invested in the plant near Moscow. Moreover, original drugs will be produced here - before this, all the facilities that foreign companies, such as the Slovenian KRKA, built in Russia, were focused only on the production of generics (cheaper analogues of brands that had lost patent protection).

Despite the fact that the volume of the Russian pharmaceutical market has already exceeded $10 billion, and the turnover of its leaders, federal distributors, amounts to hundreds of millions, no one is yet seeking to actively invest in production. More precisely, the transfer of funds from the trade to the production sphere is in its infancy. In such a situation, Russian healthcare leaders cannot count on a completely independent pharmaceutical industry. “In the 90s, the pharmaceutical industry in our country, unfortunately, practically ceased to exist in a number of areas. This concerns, first of all, the production of antibiotics and insulins,” Yuri Belenkov, head of the Federal Agency for Health and Social Development (Roszdrav), reminded Vremya Novostey. According to him, the development of the industry will go in the direction of cooperation with large foreign companies. As an example, Mr. Belenkov cited the Oryol region, where the production of genetically engineered insulin has recently appeared using technology purchased in Poland and from foreign substances. “I know that the government’s position on this matter is as follows: we need to do this in the future. It is planned to introduce this practice for a number of drugs, including antibiotics. We will purchase technologies abroad,” added the head of Roszdrav.

Foreign manufacturers seem to have understood and accepted the proposed rules of the game. Already in August, the Belgian Solvay Pharma will be able to rightfully call itself a “domestic manufacturer”. Other European companies are also studying the issue of opening their production facilities in Russia. “This is a very good example for other Western manufacturers, who, as I know, are also very interested in the Russian market,” Emmanuelle Vigne, head of the health department of the French Embassy in Russia, told Vremya Novostei.

In the near future, the Russian pharmaceutical market will become even more attractive in terms of investment , says Andrey Mladentsev. The support program for the Russian manufacturer, developed by his department, has already passed all stages of approval and is now awaiting the final signature - it should be signed any day by First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Fundamentally new in this program was the clause that states that pharmaceutical production will now be licensed according to the forms of products produced, and not according to the range of goods, as is currently done. It is expected that this will reduce the number of applications from enterprises to Roszdravnadzor for additional licenses and will allow new drugs to be put into production faster.

Another important point concerns the procedure for admitting products manufactured abroad to the domestic market - here, on the contrary, we are talking about tightening control over suppliers, who must provide information about the parameters of their production. The authorities no longer intend to take the word, even the printed one, of importers. “A program is now being developed to check the submitted information for its reliability and compliance with Russian standards,” Mr. Mladentsev told Vremya Novostei, making it clear that on-site inspections of foreign factories will be total, and “there will be a very serious conversation with those who provided false information.”

Galina PAPERNAYA