Don't expect innovations from the pharmaceutical cluster
Cluster analysisDmitry Lanin, "Expert"
The government of St. Petersburg has decided on the last participant of the pharmaceutical cluster, which is planned to be created on an area of 18 hectares in the city of Pushkino: it became "Farm-Holding".
Besides him, four other companies will work within the framework of the project – Geropharm, Biocad, Samson-Med and Neon. The volume of investments of the participants is from 20 to 50 million dollars, while the companies intend not only to invest their own funds, but also to attract debt financing.
The regional authorities expect that by creating a cluster they will be able to weaken the region's dependence on foreign drugs and contribute to the implementation of the Pharma 2020 strategy aimed at reducing Russia's dependence on foreign drugs and creating their own production of innovative drugs. However, even taking into account the preferences provided, the capabilities of Russian pharmaceutical companies remain incomparable with the world leaders of the industry, and it is not necessary to talk about innovations in pharmaceuticals yet.
Combining the dissimilarCompanies accepted to the St. Petersburg cluster operate in different market segments.
Biocad focuses on the creation of original and generic drugs in the field of urology, oncology and neurology. The company decided to participate in the cluster due to the presence in St. Petersburg of a developed scientific and technical base, the necessary infrastructure. According to General Director Mikhail Kubylinsky, it is planned to organize industrial production of twenty-six medicines from the list of "strategically important medicines" and twenty from the list of vital and essential medicines of the Ministry of Health and Social Development at the future site near St. Petersburg.
Another member of the cluster, Geropharm, produces medicines used in ophthalmology and neurology, as well as genetically engineered human insulin. Currently, the company has only three drugs in its assets, but in the near future the range may be expanded to ten names. The company also uses peptide compounds to create its medicines. "The participation of companies using biosynthesis technologies necessary for the production of peptides is a big plus for the cluster, since pharmacists have high hopes for this sector against the background of stagnation of traditional synthesis technologies," notes Sergey Shulyak, director of the DSM Group agency.
Pharm-Holding, established in 2006 by specialists from Geropharm, specializes in the manufacture of peptide preparations. In addition to ready-made medicines, it produces substances, diagnostic systems, and synthesizes peptides for scientific research by customer companies.
Samson-Med, which produces a wide range of biologically active substances and lyophilized forms of injectable drugs, expects to sell its products, including to other members of the cluster. "This will minimize logistical costs, and as a result, the consumer will receive cheaper and higher–quality medicines," explained Angela Pozenko, Deputy Director of Samson-Med for Economics and Finance. However, it is not known whether the company's services will be in demand, since both Geropharm, Pharm-Synthesis, and Biocad have their own technologies for the production of substances.
The least information about the company "Neon", created in 2009. Earlier, its general director Nikolay Birulin announced plans to build a plant with a capacity of up to 1 billion tablets per year, and then to produce injectable solutions with a volume of up to 300 million ampoules, but did not specify which drugs were in question.
Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Mikhail Oseevsky believes that the cluster has managed to gather leaders of the domestic pharmaceutical industry capable of producing innovative products with high added value. Analysts are more restrained. So, Sergey Shulyak recalls that the national leaders – the companies "Pharmstandard" and "Veropharm" – did not declare their participation in the project at all. "Most likely, the leadership of the region, when recruiting participants, looked not so much at their scientific and technical base as at their financial capabilities," the head of the DSM Group agency notes.
Universal clusteringThe cluster initiative of the Government of St. Petersburg is not unique for the pharmaceutical sector.
Other regions are also working on the creation of such zones: Moscow, Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl, Stavropol, Yekaterinburg. Their activity has a very simple explanation: the pharmaceutical market is still one of the most profitable and fastest growing sectors of the economy. According to the DSM Group, it grew by 23% last year, despite the crisis. If the growth rate does not fall below 10% per year in the near future, then by 2012 its volume may reach $ 20 billion, and market players in the future may become large taxpayers. In addition, clusters will help create new jobs.
"Now the volume of the St. Petersburg pharmaceutical market is more than 20 billion rubles a year. At the same time, the city buys three-quarters of the necessary medicines abroad. This is a matter of state drug safety, and our desire to solve it is quite understandable," says Mikhail Oseevsky. According to him, the cluster participants will receive a number of preferences. We are talking about the benefits of income tax and property tax in terms of funds credited to the city budget. "Another powerful tool to support pharmaceutical enterprises is the city order," the official notes. Recall that this is not the first experience of using the cluster model by local authorities. The administration's assets already include projects to create automotive and electronic clusters.
The government encourages such activity. "Drug clusters will not just develop on the territory of the Russian Federation, they will receive proper state support," said Tatyana Golikova, Minister of Health and Social Development, in January. The first step on the part of the state was the compensation of interest payments on loans attracted for the purchase of foreign high-tech equipment, a list of equipment was approved, the import of which is exempt from VAT and customs duties.
However, it is unlikely that the St. Petersburg project can be considered a cluster in the full sense of the word. A cluster, as you know, is a group of neighboring interconnected companies and related organizations operating in a certain area and characterized by common activities and mutually complementary. To the question whether there will be a technological or other connection between enterprises in the city of Pushkino, the answer is rather negative than positive. It is more correct to speak not about a cluster, but about a special economic zone in which companies of a similar profile operate. "The domestic pharmaceutical industry is too far behind the foreign one, and it will be very difficult to organize the entire production chain in one territory," says David Melik–Huseynov, director of the Pharmexpert agency. "Therefore, the main incentive for companies to participate in clusters is not production synergy, but obtaining guarantees from local authorities and the state."
There is no clear answer to another question: due to what really innovative drugs will be developed in clusters, and not generics? Pharma 2020 assumes the creation of at least twenty of its own innovative drugs by 2020, but even taking into account serious benefits, it is unlikely that the Russian pharmaceutical industry is able to solve such a task directly. If twenty years ago the cost of developing one drug was about $ 200 million, now this figure has risen to 800 million and will soon exceed $ 1 billion. And the Pharma 2020 strategy for the period from 2009 to 2020 includes only $3.5 billion for the development of all new Russian medicines.
To solve the task set by the government, companies are looking for workarounds. "The production of original drugs can be developed in two ways," notes Melik–Huseynov. – One is the creation of a molecule from scratch, and the other is the purchase of a ready–made innovative molecule, making minor changes to its structure, thanks to which pharmaceutical properties are not lost. The second way is much cheaper, and if the costs of synthesizing original molecules are measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, then the purchase and modification costs are in the tens."
This is exactly the strategy implemented by Biocad. "Now we are finishing work on two molecules created on the basis of existing ones, and we are working on four more molecules," Mikhail Kubylinsky said. According to him, this significantly reduces the cost of the process of creating new drugs also because it allows you to reduce costs at the stage of clinical trials.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru07.06.2010