The Russian pharmaceutical market needs a development program for at least 10 years ahead

19 September 2017

In the framework of the Second All-Russian GMP conference ‘GMP integration as a driver of business competitiveness growth’ a plenary session ‘Issues of regulation of the industry on the example of localization pharmaceutical industries. Development factors and regulatory obstacles’ was held with the participation of the President of “Acticomp” Alexander Semyonov and other leading representatives of the pharmaceutical industry.”

According to Sergey Tsyb, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, who noted the continuation of the positive trend of growth and development of the pharmaceutical industry: the market growth in monetary terms amounted to 733 billion rubles, of which 45% are domestic medicines, just for the period January-July 2017. In the first half of the year, the growth of exports of pharmaceutical products amounted to more than 23% compared to the same indicators of the previous year, which shows the process of the companies actively entering the international markets.

Despite the positive indicators announced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Alexander Semyonov believes that there is a real threat to the market posed by the protectionist policy of the leading countries concerning the production and supply of active pharmaceutical substances.

“The way our draft resolution of the third wheel concept is implemented in another country is amazing. India aims to create a chain of full-cycle production within the country and implements a state program on import substitution, according to which the preferences are provided to local producers of finished medicines. This provides for the introduction of high customs duties on the export of all local substances,” said the President of “Acticomp”. In addition, Alexander Semyonov mentioned the situation in China, where it is planned to reduce production by 3.5 times due to the difficult environmental conditions, and environmental penalties imposed on the industry will exceed the indicators of 2015 by 3 times. “It is clear that the production of substances in China will not be completely suspended, but prices for them, as well as for Indian substances, will grow,” Alexander Semyonov summed up.

The participants came to the conclusion that a high-tech industry such as pharmaceuticals, needs new tools and incentives to further develop and increase production capacity. Sergey Tsyb said that next year adjustment and finalization of Pharma 2020 program will begin, which will also take into account measures to develop export potential.

Alexander Semyonov supported the initiative, noting that successful development of the industry requires more than Pharma 2020 alone, and a new perspective is needed for at least 10 years: “Such a program should provide for specific measures of tax and export preferences, investment stimulation of market development, development of professional educational centers, establishment of pharmaceutical clusters for the production of substances and finished dosage forms, as well as transparent programs of subsidies and concessional lending. We are ready to act as business experts to jointly develop the necessary tools.”