On April 21, a meeting of the Commission on healthcare and Public Health was held at the site of the Public Chamber of St. Petersburg. Speaking to the audience, Chairman of the Public Council under the Federal service for Surveillance in Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor), General Director of the ARPM, Victor Dmitriev told how the industry solves issues arising from the introduction of restrictive economic sanctions. “The simplest solution to the issue of excessive demand for medicines is the full shelves of pharmacies. The industry is doing everything possible to maintain the range and affordability of medicines for the population,” the speaker noted and called on colleagues from the Civic Chambers, patient and public organizations to take a balanced approach to statements for the media, without creating panic among patients and artificial agiotage in pharmacies with their statements.

The difficult period that the country is going through is not only a time of problems, but also a time of opportunities. The meeting participants focused on the need not in words, but in deeds to pursue a policy of import substitution. And for this, the state, represented by specialized federal executive authorities, should stimulate the creation of full-cycle production facilities, pursue a reasonable pricing policy that allows manufacturing companies to maintain profitability sufficient for development, and finally pay attention to the 100% dependence of Russian drug manufacturers on the supply of imported equipment and components.

Representatives of the medical community, represented by the chief physicians of city’s medical institutions, pointed to the risks of lack of low-priced medicines that are in demand both in high-tech medical centers and rural hospitals. These drugs are usually produced domestically, but clumsy pricing makes their production unprofitable.

Concluding the meeting, Irina Sokolova, Chairman of the Public Chamber of St. Petersburg, noted the timeliness of the meeting, the importance of the fact that the participants identified not only the pain points of the provision of medicines to citizens, but most importantly, suggested ways to solve and correct problematic issues. All the proposals made will be included in the final resolution, which will be sent both to the city authorities and to industry-specific associations working in the healthcare sector.