Citramon producers are not up to innovation

However, the opinions of the participants in the discussion on the need for the widespread introduction of innovative industries and, in particular, regarding the participation of the state in the process were divided.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Egorov, representative of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Mikhail Sorokin and Deputy Director General of the NGO "Microgen" Alexey Kupriyanov believe that companies need strong government support. As necessary measures, experts named preferences for domestic companies, the revival of infrastructure, guarantees of public procurement of drugs under state programs, simplified registration schemes, tax and customs benefits, financial and status support for academic science. At the same time, the experts agreed that nothing will change from just listing the necessary steps, and there are very few chances to receive prompt and adequate state support from a domestic manufacturer.

After analyzing the current state of the pharmaceutical industry and global market trends, analysts concluded that the state's plans to revive the pharmaceutical industry are unrealistic. One of the least realistic points in the concept is the creation of 200 innovative drugs by 2020. According to statistics, the share of innovative drugs in the Russian market of Russia does not exceed 12%. For comparison: in the USA it is 82%, in Japan - 76%, in France - 60%. At the same time, according to David Melik-Huseynov, Director of marketing research at the industry analytical company Pharmexpert, 68 companies in the Russian Federation produce analgin, 50 companies produce validol, 46 - citramon. With this state of affairs, there can be no question of any innovations on a mass scale.

"In this area, the state has too many slogans and little rational approach," said Oleg Feldman, CEO of Comcon-Pharma. In his opinion, ideally, the pharmaceutical industry should be divided into two areas: the supply of necessary medicines to the population (most appropriately, modern generics) and the development of innovations as a business. In this case, innovative developments can be a product for sale to Western companies (for example, the HimRar company works today on Western orders), and also serve as a base for the creation of drugs that will be sold in the CIS. As an illustration, the expert cited the example of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, where the basis of the supply of drugs to the population is generics - copies of original drugs that have come out of patent. According to Oleg Feldman, the market will still develop in the direction that brings profit to business, but today neither the infrastructure, nor the personnel, nor the quantity and quality of developments imply the creation of mass medicinal innovations. The state, according to the expert, should not be a player in this market. "Creating a local system for the production of exclusively innovative drugs for Russia means sacrificing the health of the population to ambitions and loud slogans," said Feldman.