An international medico-biological conference “Meet in Italy for life sciences” took place in Rome. The Russian delegation was headed by the deputy minister of Industry and Trade, Sergey Tcyb.
During the meeting between Russian and Italian counterparts, it was noted that corporation with Italy is strategically important for the Russian economy and has a great potential for the future. Also, the Italian authorities are actively advocating for the removal of the sanctions on Russia. Four largest regions Italy signed the petition to the Government to remove the anti-Russian sanctions. Prime minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2016 noted the necessity to reestablish friendly and business relations between the two countries.
Cooperation on healthcare is one of the priority directions of cooperation between the two countries. Italy has established itself as a reliable partner. The Italian authorities have always been sensitive to humanitarian issues. Italy has been the host for many meetings and conference on issues in healthcare, preventive medicines and biosecurity.
Pharmaceutical industries of the two countries are interested in cooperation. The volume of the Italian pharmaceutical market was $23 billion and the Russian over $17 billion. The most potential for cooperation is in R&D and educational projects in medical and biotechnologies.
Russian Pharma views Italy as a perspective and reliable pertinent. “The meeting with my counterpart, President of the Association “Pharmindustry”, Massimo Scaccabarozzi showed that we have no major differences in our views. We spoke about areas of potential cooperation. This will be a combined work on the development of new molecules, educational projects, and regulatory improvements. In the presence of Russia’s trade representative in Italy, Igor Karavaev we agreed on the agreement between the ARPM and the Pharmindustry, which will become a "road map" to implement these areas of cooperation.
Also, there is a great potential for cooperation between Russian producers and companies of the cluster of medical innovations and communication “C.H.I.CO”. At the conference that was moderated by President of the cluster, Fabio Mirali we spoke about particular areas of cooperation in the area of oncology and material science for the medical industry. I am confident that the results of these meetings will be seen soon,” said ARPM Director General, Victor Dmitriev.
Italian pharmaceutical business is actively developing business communication with Russian regions and clusters. “Italy was the first to develop technological clusters as the form of industry’s development. Italy has a lot of experience that could be useful for the Russian clusters. Therefore, the Pharmaceutical cluster in Kaluga is signing a cooperation agreement with the Italian cluster C.H.I.C.O.,” said the acting director of the non-profit partnership “The Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster”.
The signed agreement is the first one in the sequence of Russia-Italy pharmaceutical collaboration. Back in 2015, Palladio Zannini and the Government of Kaluga signed an agreement on construction of a packaging facility for medicines and cosmetics. The primary investment amounted for €10 million. Besides just the investment, the Russian pharma also benefits from the fact that the newly allocated factory of Palladio Zannini will be produced chipped packages with is very important within the launch of the new labeling system in Russia. Also, starting in 2014 another pharmaceutical factory of Berlin Chemie / Menarini is working in Kaluga. This company represents the leading union of pharmaceutical producers in Italy- Menarini Group.
Representatives of the Kaluga pharmaceutical cluster welcome Italian companies in the region. “Italy is one of the largest economies in the EU and of course, Italian companies are actively present on the Russian pharmaceutical market. First of all, we are talking about one of the largest company on the market- Berlin-Chemie/Menarini, Recordati, Angelini. Also, Italy is one of the main suppliers of modern equipment for drug production. Therefore, the Russia-Italy pharmaceutical cooperation has a great potential,” said Irina Novikova.
“It is interesting that the main topic of the Forum correlates with our plans for the development of the company. There is a lot in common between the roadmap HealthNet and activities of “R-Pharm,” noted head of Healthcare Economics of “R-Pharm”, Alexander Bikov.