Expensive drug
Export of medicines from Russia is becoming the most profitable activity in the pharmaceutical market
Svetlana Afonina, "Business Petersburg"
For the period from January to July 2019, the volume of exports of finished medicines from Russia (except shipments to the EAEU) reached 15 billion rubles, an increase of 26% in rubles. The volume of shipments in packages also increased (by 12.5%, to 307 million packages of GLP), calculated in the analytical company RNC Pharma ("ArEnSi Pharma"). Pharmaceutical companies from St. Petersburg also made their contribution by starting the supply of drugs for the treatment of oncological diseases and flu vaccines abroad.
It is difficult to calculate the share of St. Petersburg in the overall structure, since one company can own factories in several regions or produce a drug here – and own the rights to it in the Moscow region. However, taking into account the reservations, the St. Petersburg exporters include the companies Vertex, Biocad, NTFF Polisan, Cytomed, the Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums (SPbNIIVS FMBA of Russia), Pharmproject and Grotex (Solopharm).
According to Nikolay Bespalov, RNC Pharma Development Director, in terms of shipments, these companies sent the most medicines to Vietnam (178 million rubles), Iraq (178 million), Lithuania (158 million), Sri Lanka (155 million) and Nicaragua (88 million).
In particular, Biocad began to supply the antitumor drugs Bevacizumab and Gerticad to Iraq (growth from zero to 178 million rubles). Shipments to Lithuania of the Geropharm company (Cortexin nootrope and Retinalamin ophthalmic drug), as well as the Biocad company (Gerticad antitumor) increased almost 30 times (in rubles). In addition, SPbNIIVS began to supply the Russian influenza vaccine "Grippovak" to Nicaragua (an increase in the volume of supplies from zero to 88 million rubles). The final stages of this vaccine – bottling and packaging – are being carried out at the Latin American Institute of Biotechnology Mechnikov in Nicaragua, and the Ministry of Health of this country for the first time purchased a Russian drug for vaccination of the population.
Of the listed manufacturers, shipments are declining only at two companies, analysts say. "Polisan has minus 52% in rubles: this is mainly due to the actual cessation of supplies to Ukraine. There was also a drop in other areas, but this is the main reason," Bespalov says.
The company "Cytomed" has a 20% reduction in rubles: she stopped the supply of the immunostimulator "Timogen" to Lithuania in the form of a ready-made form, but at the same time significantly increased its shipments to Finland at her own enterprise. "In fact, we are talking about changes in logistics," explains Bespalov.
According to the center for cluster development of the technopark of St. Petersburg, 185 companies work in the pharmaceutical cluster of the city (including enterprises engaged in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, as well as radiation technologies). They produce both original drugs and a variety of generics and biosimilars. Pharmaceutical companies are developing contract production: for example, NTFF "Polisan" has localized the production of several foreign drugs (including the antimicrobial agent "Zivox" of Pfizer (Pfizer). The enterprise of the foreign pharmaceutical giant Novartis (Novartis) is also located in St. Petersburg.
In total, according to analysts, since the beginning of the year, shipments of medicines have been carried out to 88 countries (except for supplies to the EAEU countries). In terms of monetary volumes, Ukraine is in the lead – more precisely, the territories of the DPR and LPR, the study says. Uzbekistan is on the second line in terms of supply volumes. Sudan became the leader in the dynamics of shipments, the export of medicines from Russia to it increased almost 143 times (to a share of 11.3% in total exports). The entire volume of supplies to Sudan is a vaccine for the prevention of yellow fever of the M. P. Chumakov Institute.
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