State vitamin deficiency
About the collapse of the domestic production of ascorbic acid.
Anatoly Markovich Taber, Director of Alfa City-Polis, Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor, laureate of the Lebedev Prize of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 26.03.2008
In the USSR, about 2 tons of ascorbic acid (read vitamin C) were produced per year with a demand of about 3.5 tons. With the established system of medical examination of the Ministry of Health of the USSR, even in the prosperous central regions of the USSR, acute vitamin C deficiency and manifestations of scurvy diseases were noted. They struggled with this and found funds for the construction of new plants for the production of vitamin C even in the most difficult post-war years and in times of total shortage during perestroika.
With a bitter taste
A distinctive feature of the domestic production of ascorbic acid was that it was entirely created by ourselves. Not a single episode of this production was purchased, and the quality of vitamin C exceeded the products of foreign companies. No foreign standard provided for a three-year shelf life of products. For domestic ascorbic acid, foreign firms lined up.
Let's be honest, the realities of that time put the production of ascorbic acid in a difficult position. For too long, the fact of technical backwardness, the wretchedness of hardware equipment, unprofitable volumes of unit capacity, etc., plus the notorious residual financing, was ignored. Ignoring these facts did not change the circumstances, but only aggravated the consequences – the collapse of domestic ascorbic acid production.
Russian factories that produced ascorbic acid, one by one, went into oblivion. First the Kalinin Vitamin Plant, then Leningrad, Shchelkovo, Ufa, Belgorod, Yoshkar–Ola fought the longest.
As you know, clinical death occurs with brain death. Such a brain of the industry was the VNIIVI – Vitamin Institute. Within its walls, a domestic technology for the production of ascorbic acid was created, the foundations of the domestic applied chemistry of ascorbic acid were laid here. As a scientific center, it has not withstood the pressure of change. This loss is irreplaceable, since the main thing is lost – the domestic school of specialists.
The Dictatorship of substance
Today, all types of vitamins, antibiotics, as well as all other 90% of pharmaceutical products in Russia, are either imported from outside the cordon, or are made on overseas raw materials. But the pharmaceutical industry in world practice has always been considered one of the most attractive investment areas of business. According to the average statistical summary, one dollar invested in pharmaceutical products is returned to the investor by six. The pharmaceutical industry competes with the food industry in terms of the rate of return on invested funds.
The pharmaceutical industry is not only the manufacture of tablets, pills, etc. These are only ready–made medicines obtained on the basis of raw materials – substances - basic products of the pharmaceutical industry. Here it is, the substance, and makes this production an industry.
Based on what has been said, there is no pharmaceutical industry in our country today as such, but there are numerous workshops for processing foreign raw materials. The Ministry of Industry and Energy of the Russian Federation, probably due to employment, has not yet figured out what they are supervising there.
The price of this raw material – the substance – will be set in Hamburg or Beijing depends on how much the pensioner will leave money in the pharmacy's cash register, how much the budget of the fatherland will lose weight, how much the substance producers and intermediaries will get rich, how many new jobs we will create there, in Leverkusen or in Zhan-zhou...
Today, only one thing is obvious: in our fatherland, there is not only a state program for long-term stimulation of industries responsible for the country's medical safety, but also a clear understanding of the danger of the current real situation.
It seems to me, in principle, unlikely that any effective state programs or coordinated actions in this regard on the part of legislative bodies and government structures will appear now. And here's why.
The Russian market of medicines amounts to $ 11 billion, of which about $ 9 billion. – import, that is, this money is "scrolled" by firms that supply imported medicines and substances to our market. Can you imagine how easy it will be for them to give up even a small part of such money and what they will be willing to do to save their business?
The basic element of an economic miracle
We live in an age of ascorbic boom. For more than 50 years, the annual increase in the production of ascorbic acid in the world is not less than 5%, the deficit does not fall below 25%. Every year in Russia is imported from China, Switzerland, Slovenia, Japan, Germany, about 1.5 tons of ascorbic acid on health, food and perfume industries, veterinary and so on. Thus, about $ 15 million from the fatherland goes over the cordon in an explicit form, in a hidden form – for dietary supplements and other products containing ascorbic acid sold, consider at least four times more. Plus lost jobs and lost tax deductions. That's the concrete monetary damage caused by ascorbic acid to the economy of the Russian Federation.
Ascorbic acid has become a kind of symbol of our time, it has entered the category of strategic raw materials of the USA, Germany, France, the volume of its consumption has become a rating of the social health of the country. Humanity has not spent money on any kind of medicines with such ease. And I must admit, not without benefit for myself. This was perfectly understood in China and in three years they created the most powerful ascorbic acid production in the world. They threw 30 tons of surprisingly cheap quality products on the market. Ascorbic acid brings about $1 billion a year to the Chinese economy.
Please note that the expansion of China's goods on the international market began with such a high–tech (read – expensive) product as ascorbic acid. China started all this by inviting foreign specialists (among them was the author of this article), since China at that time had practically no experience in this industry. The Chinese administration took only one predictable step – it defined a strategy and provided support to the industry (preferential taxation, subsidies, protectionist assistance in the market), which in one movement conquered the world market. No innovation is capable of this today. I dare say – even nanotechnology adopted by the state.
Once again, pay attention – ascorbic acid was among those products that launched the Chinese economic miracle. But we could have had all this. At that time we had a head start.
Ascorbinka in her homeland
The author is aware of the tendentiousness of his article. He should be excused – it's a shame for the state.
I had good teachers, I had the opportunity to work with excellent specialists. The Russian school of specialists has always had its own view on the chemistry and technology of ascorbic acid production, which was considered by colleagues. I have repeatedly had to take part in projects of various companies to create ascorbic acid production. Now, as I write this article, I have a ticket to Delhi in my pocket – they decided to put a plant in Indore to produce 2 tons of ascorbic acid per year. My knowledge is in demand where the problems of ascorbic acid, which I understand, are solved.
Unfortunately, over the years, no one has ever approached me from outside the fatherland. I wasn't just passively waiting for the call. I wrote, met, and proved to official people and homegrown businessmen that it is possible to create a product with an export future in the homeland at a price lower than the Chinese one with a payback period rare in its brevity. Counter–argument of the first - why build if you can buy. Secondly, why invest here today if you can tomorrow.
I hope that not everyone at home thinks so. Therefore, as a professional, I am obliged to support them and say a word in defense of the domestic ascorbic acid – a small part of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, whose products are needed by everyone.
I want to recall the words of Felix Dzerzhinsky, said by him when he was chairman of the Supreme Economic Council in 1925 (by the way, we know almost nothing about his work in this post): "I do not preach that we should isolate ourselves from abroad. This is absolutely absurd. But we are obliged to create a favorable regime for the development of those industries that are vital and in which we can compete with them." These are words not only in defense of our ascorbic acid, but also in defense of any product with the label "Made in Russia".
I want to believe that the country will begin to understand that you can't drink water from someone else's hands forever. It is unprofitable and out of rank for a great power.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru
26.03.2008