Public procurement should stimulate innovation in medicine

The system of public procurement of medicines needs to be improved

At a conference organized by Skolkovo, Russian and Canadian experts in the field of biomedicine discussed the role of public procurement in supplying medical institutions with high-tech drugs.

The conference was called "Models of approaches to providing healthcare facilities with high-tech medical products". It was organized by the biomedical cluster of the Skolkovo Innovation Center and the Canadian non-profit organization The Conference Board of Canada.

"The conference, which Skolkovo is hosting on its site, is a rare occasion when doctors, industry and regulatory bodies gather at the same table to discuss problems that hinder the development and entry into the market of modern medical devices, and to understand what international experience can be used to solve these problems," he said Kirill Kaem, Executive Director of the Biomedical Technologies cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation. – Based on the results of the conference, a common position will be formed, which Skolkovo will propose to the Council for Economic Modernization and Innovative Development under the President of Russia."

During the two days of the event (December 4 and 5), its participants – representatives of Russian federal executive authorities and foreign centralized agencies for the supply of clinics, doctors, as well as Russian and foreign manufacturers of medicines and medical devices – discussed the criteria for purchasing medical devices in different countries.

"Recently, in the UK, Spain, Canada, the Netherlands and other countries where the public sector is the main buyer of products and services for healthcare, approaches to supply based only on cost calculation are changing to approaches focused on treatment outcomes," says Gabriela, Director of The Conference Board of Canada for innovation in healthcare Prada. – In my opinion, this is the only way to maintain the financial stability of the healthcare system and cope with the growing demand for volume and quality. In Russia, on the one hand, I see a great desire to develop innovations, an example of which is Skolkovo. On the other hand, I observe certain structural barriers that may slow down the use of approaches that have improved the results of treatment of patients in other countries."

The need to contain costs faced by Russian healthcare is now also determining the development of healthcare systems in other countries of the world. Dmitry Kolobov, Deputy Director of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, told what the state is doing to develop innovative technologies in the field of healthcare: "We help Russian companies create new products and bring them to the domestic market with the help of incentives such as federal targeted programs, localization of production and long-term government contracts. A striking response of the industry to the help from the state was the rise of business investment in this area — about 50 billion rubles of investments from business are attracted for 5 billion invested public funds."

The conference participants came to the conclusion that public procurement will contribute to the introduction of innovations in medicine only if the authorities focus on long-term treatment results. The current auction model of public procurement in medicine should be replaced by long-term contracts with the condition of localization of high-tech industries and the purchase of goods and services according to efficiency criteria. The conference discussed new models of public procurement that stimulate the development of innovations in the medical industry and allow achieving significant results in the treatment of patients with effective spending of budget funds. "In many developed countries, as in Russia, the state and the public sector are the largest customers of the medical industry. The improvement of procurement procedures in the world in recent years has greatly reduced the path of effective innovative solutions to the patient. If we do not study and integrate the best international experience, we risk seriously slowing down the development of medical technologies in Russia," Kirill Kayem said.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru10.12.2014