The XII Forum of Interregional Cooperation of Russia and Kazakhstan took place in Astana. The event, which has become a tradition, plays a significant role in the development of the diverse strategic partnership between the two countries. It will stimulate strengthening of existing economic, political and cultural ties.
As part of the forum a bilateral meeting between President of Russia, Vladimir Putin and President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev was held. Mr. Putin noted that the current meeting between Russian and Kazakhstan businesses is very in demand and could become a good tradition. Kazakstan is a Russia’s strategical partner and ally. The cooperation between the two countries is constantly developing. He also noted that Russia is actively implementing its program of import-substitution and Kazakstan is highly involved in it.
The business program of the Forum was attended by President of the RSPP, Alexander Shokhin and President of CCI, Sergei Katyrin, as well as representatives of government agencies, development institutions, regional administrations of Russia and Kazakhstan and the business community. Russian pharmaceutical industry was represented by ARPM Director General, Victor Dmitriev.
The economy of Kazakstan is the largest in Central Asia and the fastest growing among the EAEU countries. The country’s GDP grew by 137% in 2016 compared to 2008. The rate of development of the pharmaceutical market of Kazakhstan is wishing the rate of the country’s overall economic rates. The volume of the market reached $1.8 billion, which made it the second largest EAEU market after Russia.
The participants of the forum discussed future of the single EAEU pharmaceutical market considering different aspects of national pharmaceutical programs. A work is currently taking place on unifications and harmonization of the legislation of drug circulation within the single market. The Eurasian economic commission has designed and submitted for approval 19 documents, and the commission is currently working on the third level documents.
A particular attention has to be paid to the unification of state procurement systems and measures to support local producers. In this regards, the experience of Kazakhstan could be very useful. The county signs a seven-year contract with a company that accommodates its production in Kazakhstan.
It is also important to have the same understanding of what is a local product. According to the Russian law, a medical product that was only packaged in Russia will no longer be considered as a local product starting January 1, 2016. However, for the medicines that were produced in the EAEU countries will have preferences on the Russian market. The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is designing a three-step system of preferences at state orders for local producers depending on the level production that was done within the country. It is assumed, that the system will be applied to all members of the EAEU. Therefore, the most preferences will be given to products that were produced by a full-cycle production within the Union, then to producers of finished dosage forms, and only then other companies, including foreign ones will be allowed to participate in the trades.
“Kazakhstan is our old and reliable partner. Today both the Russian and Kazakhstan business community is waiting for deadlines and future of the Single market. We think that business, unlike regulators is ready to find compromises. Unfortunately, this leads to unnecessary prolongation of the process of approval of normative documents, and therefore, the start of the single market is being delayed. We informed heads of the two states about our concerns and we hope that they will influence national regulators to finish the process of designing a single pharmaceutical legislation,” noted ARPM Director General, Victor Dmitriev.
The current delay could be caused by the upcoming transparent competition between the regulators within the EAEU. With the new policy, any regulatory decisions should not only be announced, but it would have to be justified among other countries of the Union. Presumably, it will increase the efficiency and quality of regulatory documents.
A big part of the future collaboration is the development of mutual productions, and sharing experience between leading companies of Russia and Kazakstan. Head of “Karaganda pharmaceutical complex”, Sergey Baron noted their successful cooperation with “Pharmstandart”. The forum also included the signing of an agreement between “Karaganda pharmaceutical complex” and “Biokad”, which was represented by Head of Business Development, Dmitriy Mordvincev.