It is way too early to relax. There is still a lot of work and only together we can solve all the issues
On 28th of February 2018 there was the Tenth Anniversary Russian Congress of pharmaceutical and medical industries workers in the House of Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This time, the main topic of the Congress was the efficiency of using the existed in the country scientific and manufacturing potential in the field of medical technologies. During the forum some issues of improving the technologies of the pharmaceutical and medical industries were discussed, taking into account the changes in the healthcare system.
The Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has sent a greeting to the participants of the Congress, emphasizing that the government will continue to support the pharmaceutical industry actively. «We will do all needed stuff to inflow investments, to open new high-tech enterprises, to modernize the existing plants. The modern vital and essential medicines must be available for people. Of course, we will continue our work to protect the market from falsified and counterfeit products», — the telegram said.
Yuri Kalinin, the President of the Union of Associations and Enterprises of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industries, opening the congress, stressed that the issues of this congress are widely discussed in organizations and associations of the Union of Associations and Enterprises, at conferences and round tables with the participation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs with the involved medical and patient organizations, what gives a confidence in the positive development and promising changes in the industry.
Representatives of the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Healthcare, Roszdravnadzor, institutes of development and manufacturers of medical products took part in this Congress.
During the Congress the issues of state policy in Healthcare, pharmaceutical and medical industries, legislative support for the circulation of medicines and medical products, regulatory regulation at the national level and in the Eurasian Economic Union were discussed; also, spoke about a special investment contract. One of the most crucial issues of discussion was the question of medicines marking. So the Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare Mikhail Murashko said that it is necessary to reformat the system and transform it based on modern realities. «The marking project is actually the first project of Roszdravnadzor, which is being implemented in this format. We have to overcome a lot of difficulties in order to make the process and the system transparent. Today the pilot project showed its efficiency, it already includes 1900 participants. And every day its number is growing».
The General Director of the Association of the Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers continued the topic, and noted that «Far not all the issues of this topic have been solved. We are concerned about the entry of pharmacy chains into the system. We met with many of their representatives. Not all of them have decided on the final decision to join the project. Despite the fact that the system has already registered 1900 organizations, the number of potential participants is about 38 thousand. We need to understand how we will act at the regional level. We are afraid that we invest a lot, and we will face a reluctance of pharmacy chains in the regions». However, Viktor Dmitriev has noted some positive steps in the industry: «Recently, there has been a change in the attitude of patients, the medical community to the products which are produced in the Russian Federation. Having said that, it does not mean that we need to relax. We have to solve many other problems. The success of solving these issues depends only on how tightly we will interact with all the government authorities».
The Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry Development of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, Alexei Alekhin, assured that «until the 1st of January 2020, all organizations will be connected to the system. I want to mention that companies which do not have their own resources for connecting the program, we introduce the possibility of increasing the soft loans at 1% per year for 2 years. Thus, we give an opportunity to all organizations to solve the emerging problems and to connect to the system during the allotted time», Alekhin has mentioned.
Based on the results of the competent discussion of the issues on the agenda of the Congress, a coordinated program to support industry will be developed, aimed at meeting Russia’s need for affordable, high-quality medicines, medical devices and products.