AFPEEC member companies contribute to the development of a patient-oriented approach in the Russian healthcare system.

2 June 2021

On June 2, on the sideline of Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, member companies of the Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of the Eurasian Economic Union (AFPEAEU) signed the Declaration on the Policy for Development, Production, Quality Control and Safety Monitoring of Medicines.

The signatories of the declaration were directors of 9 national full-cycle pharmaceutical companies, among which were: Active Component, BIOCAD, GENERIUM, GEROPHARM, Nanolek, PETROVAKS, Polisan, Pharmstandard, KhimRar Group.

The document was endorsed by Stanislav Naumov, Chairperson of the Board of AFPEAEU. The official signing ceremony was also attended by Vasily Osmakov, First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation; Sergey Glagolev, Deputy Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation and Yuri Zhulev, Co-Chairperson of the All-Russian Union of Patients.

The Declaration is a significant step in comprehensive facilitation of an open and constructive dialogue with medical patient communities. It is focused on increasing confidence of patients and physicians in quality of Russian medicines. To do so, manufacturers declare to be overcommitted to promotion of a patient-centered approach in the healthcare system at all stages of the drug life cycle, to introduce and forward trustworthy cooperation between national pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical patient communities, and to improve systems for efficacy and safety monitoring of medicines.

Stanislav Naumov, Chairperson of the Board of AFPEAEU, said: “Today, we have laid foundations for development of another feedback mechanism to various complains about adverse effect of medicines manufactured by the parties to the Declaration. We did it to avoid situations like the last year hot-button issue of oncological drugs, when patients and physicians could not get feedback to their claims sent to the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare, and had to apply directly to the government, demanding to take immediate measures. Such cases should be carefully investigated in an open dialogue and cooperation between manufacturers and patient medical communities. The Declaration ensures a new standard for such cooperation, by breaking an established stereotype “nationally made products are worse that foreign-made ones”. Success of the Sputnik V vaccine proved to the world that made in Russia means excellent.”

Vasily Osmakov, First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, remarked: “While pursuing the Pharma-2020 Strategy, the market saw emergence of new Russian companies; their advantage is their work that since the very beginning complies with the latest rules and regulations. Now the companies have come together to face one of the most burning challenges - to increase confidence in Russian medicines, and give credence to the regulatory system in general. We fully support this initiative. A constructive dialogue between a manufacturer, a physician and a patient will ensure instant feedback to complains, that is why we are actively forming working groups chaired by key external specialists of the Ministry of Healthcare of Russia in various fields. It is an important step towards strengthening national pharmaceutical industry, since its products are greatly required in healthcare, and we, the manufacturers, are keen on getting feedback.”

Among plans for the near future is to sign an agreement with the All-Russian Union of Patients and adopt a roadmap with measures aimed at increasing confidence in Russian manufacturers, timely informing patients about the developed medicines and conducting a dialogue between manufacturers, patients, physicians and the regulator, who will bring together opinion of all parties and contribute to improving quality and safety of Russian medicines.

Yuri Zhulev, co-chairman of the All-Russian Union of Patients, reported: “Development of a patient-oriented model in the Russian healthcare system is impossible without a constructive dialogue between businesses, regulator and the patient community. AFPEAEU initiative is an unprecedented example of how the needs of Russian pharmaceutical industry are met. We always highlight evidence of positive communication among national companies, however, so far such communication has not had a systemic nature. Intent to assume over-commitments prove that well-being of patients in the first priority in the Russian companies-signatories of the Declaration. We hope that eventually the number of such companies will grow; as far as we are concerned, we will do our best to make the dialogue change the healthcare system for the better, and leave no doubts in terms of quality, efficacy and safety of medicines that Russian companies present at the market.”

You can read full text of the Declaration on the AFPEAEU website.

*** The Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of the Eurasian Economic Union was registered in 2012..

The goal of the Association is to promote conditions for development of pharmaceutical market of the Russian Federation and other EAEU countries, and to strengthen the status and competitiveness of the national pharmaceutical industry.

Members of the Association have basic centers of competence, including research laboratories and production facilities, on the territory of the Russian Federation and other countries of the EAEU, they also own know-how and other intellectual property in development and production of medicines and medical technologies. The Association includes such leading full-cycle pharmaceutical companies, as: Pharmstandard PJSC, Biocad CJSC, GEROPHARM LLC, Nanolek LLC, Polysan NTFF, Active Component JSC, Generium JSC, ChemRar Group, NPO PetrovaxPharm LLC.