Pharma 2020: Medical pessimism
Drug independenceOlga Gorelik, "Expert Online"
By 2015, 57 strategically important medicines should be produced in Russia, according to the decree of the Russian government.
They are supposed to replace Western analogues. The Russian Academy of Medical Sciences believes that this measure will not make medicines more affordable, but will only help customers and manufacturers share the money.
The Russian government has approved a list of strategically important medicines. There are 57 items in this list. These are drugs against oncological diseases, diseases of the cardiovascular system, hepatitis B and C, Gaucher's disease, multiple sclerosis and other ailments. It is these diseases, the developers of the document note, that occupy the first places in the structure of mortality of the country's population. The list includes antibiotics, drugs for anesthesia, antitumor and anti-inflammatory drugs.
The government insists that by 2015 all these medicines should be produced only on the territory of the country and could replace expensive imported analogues. The document notes that the list was approved in order to increase the economic availability of medicines for the treatment of the most common diseases. "The Ministry of Health and Social Development together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade have prepared a list of such strategically important medicines that are currently not produced in the Russian Federation, but these are extremely important medicines for the most common and serious diseases. The fact that they are not produced in Russia today, of course, makes them less accessible to the population. And here we are talking, of course, about some expensive medicines that we have to produce at home," Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said.
In order for Russia to be able to provide itself with the drugs included in the list by 2015, a special program has been prepared. "We are talking about stimulating Russian manufacturers and attracting investments, including investments of the largest foreign companies that are ready to produce such drugs on the territory of Russia," Zhukov added. Currently, the drugs included in the list are produced by large pharmaceutical companies, such as Swiss companies Roche and Novartis, French Sanofi-Aventis, Slovenian KRKA.
Recall that according to the state strategy "Pharma 2020", Russia should produce more than 50% of all medicines on its territory. Now this figure is 20%.
According to David Melik-Huseynov, an analyst at Pharmexpert, many of the drugs on the government list are currently protected by patents, and Russia will have to combine the production of medicines with respect for intellectual property rights. There are several ways to solve this problem: the state can facilitate the arrival of foreign companies that would open their production here, and domestic firms can either produce copies of medicines that have lost patent protection, or produce medicines under the license of developers.
According to Elena Nevolina, executive director of the Pharmacy Guild, even if the original drugs have patent protection for 5-7 years, Russia will meet it by 2020. It is possible that the production of 57 strategic drugs will lead to import substitution, but it will not make medicines more accessible to the patient, according to the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. "It is not very clear how the approval of this list will lead to the fact that medicines will become more accessible to the patient," says Pavel Vorobyov, president of the Society for Pharmacoeconomical Research, Deputy chairman of the Formulary Committee of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. According to him, some of the drugs listed in the list are already produced in Russia, but their price is not lower, but, on the contrary, 10-15% higher than foreign analogues. According to Vorobyov, the only way to make medicines available for diseases leading in the structure of mortality is to make treatment free for the patient. "Otherwise, this list is needed only to distribute state support among pharmaceutical companies," the professor believes.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.07.2010