Is it difficult to sell something that has almost no analogues in the world?

Ivan Afanasov: the man who brought to the Russian market
new generation plasters

Mikhail Bazhenov, BFM

How do Russian doctors accept the latest developments in biomedicine and is it difficult to sell something that has almost no analogues in the world? Mikhail Bazhenov met with businessman Ivan Afanasov.

The founder of the company Napoly is 30–year-old Ivan Afanasov. Candidate of Chemical Sciences, creator of a dissolving patch based on chitosan. Three years ago, this development was written about all over the world as a breakthrough invention, the know-how of biotechnologists from the USA. This was not entirely fair: the technology appeared earlier in Russia, and one of the authors was just Afanasov. He founded his company a year ago, in November 2014, Napoly was named startup of the year. In December, dissolving patches appeared in pharmacies. Here's what the businessman himself tells:

Ivan Afanasov, founder of the company Napoly:

"This is a bandage that fundamentally changed the approach to wound management. The bandage does not need to be removed, it resolves naturally or is easily removed when washing the wound with water at home or saline. It allows you to recover very quickly after burns, trophic ulcers, diabetic."

In six months, the company's monthly turnover reached half a million rubles. Ivan plans to triple it by the end of 2015. Now the patches are sold in the five largest cities of Russia, and in a year the company intends to enter the market of south-eastern countries. What attracted the entrepreneur to the biomedicine market?

"In general, I have been actively engaged in science since the second year. By the end of the fifth, I had probably a dozen articles and several patents. By the end of graduate school – and that, and that 20. But it was all for the library. In general, I wanted to be not in the library, but to do science for a living. What could be closer to life than life-science, than biomedicine?"

There was another reason to go into this business, Ivan adds, – a team of partners who helped bring the product to market. Without the support of existing players, a startup has few opportunities to occupy even an empty niche – it is expensive. As an example, the businessman cites the prices for entering pharmacy chains.

"To enter pharmacies, there are several variations. One million rubles for admission, 1.2 million for advertising. But you can be represented in 200 pharmacies, but it's just an entrance fee. There are national logistics companies, how to enter there? Must ensure sales of one million rubles per month. Is this possible for a startup? Well, not always."

Last year, dissolving patches received the Innopractics award as the best project in the field of biotechnology. This is a kind of official recognition among innovators. And how did one of the main consumers – doctors - meet the development on the market?

"It can be quite difficult to just convince even to try. But those who try, then rejoice and ask for more, unlike, say, the IT industry <...> Here the effect can be felt after a while, because the doctor looks, he does one dressing, the second, third and fourth. There in a few weeks, and sometimes months, can give the first feedback. And, in general, from the first sample to the sale for at least six months."

And how about sales, I am interested in Ivan, because, judging by the description, plasters help to avoid complications and heal wounds faster, which is beneficial to both patients and doctors. Are hospitals ready to buy and use the same new technologies? How difficult is it for a small innovative business to break into the public procurement system?

"At the moment, only we have several million applications, state budgets have been sequestered for the purchase of medicines. In this sense, it is sometimes very difficult to convince, including officials, that guys, you buy a pack for 1000 rubles, and not gauze for 100 rubles. Just with this pack you can cure a patient, and for 1000 rubles you will bind 10 times with gauze and then buy more ointments for 300 rubles, and also pay for the work of nurses, dressing nurses, and you will have this patient not for 10 days, but 3 weeks. In the end, you will lose."

Dissolving patches – and it should be noted – are not a product from the budget segment. The composition contains a serious share of imported raw materials. How did the devaluation affect the company? As it turned out, everything you need was purchased at the old prices.

"We use natural raw materials. This is chitosan, a biopolymer. It is available in several versions. First, it can be made from mushrooms, it can be made from crustacean shells <...> We have a lot of mushrooms, yes. But, unfortunately, our mushrooms do not produce the same chitosan that we need. In this sense, of course, we are waiting for Russian producers, but we use some of the Russian raw materials."

But one way or another, the crisis has adjusted the company's plans, first of all – to enter foreign markets. There is money for product registration in rubles, but there is not enough in dollars, Ivan jokes. The expansion was postponed. I ask, what about state support? After all, the import of high-tech products is at stake. The documents for inclusion in the register of innovative companies were sent last year, says Ivan. There is still no answer.

"It is better not to interfere with a normal product. Incentive methods should be market-based, and I say again, create product registries, an innovative game ... Today you are innovative, and two years later you can already say that you are not innovative. Because you've been on the market there for a long time and are being sold. Therefore, it is somewhat artificial."

After the interview with Ivan Afanasov, we asked the experts what the future of the Russian dissolving patch could be. According to them, this development is in the global trend: replacing dry bandages with more modern and technological ones. The question is still in the price. New materials are significantly more expensive than old ones, and therefore it is too early to talk about their mass use, especially in hospitals. But this is not only a problem in Russia, says Director of the Center for Social Economics David Melik-Huseynov, director of the Center for Social Economics:

"The gradual decision on how to treat and how much you can pay for this treatment comes down to more expensive technologies. Technologies, medicines may cost more than all expensive drugs in this category, but the effect of using the drug will be more obvious. This is exactly how this process of the emergence of certain innovative developments in the healthcare system takes place in all countries of the world."

Here the story of the dissolving plaster somehow repeats the fate of its predecessor - an ordinary adhesive plaster. At the end of the XIX century, immediately after its creation, it was considered a premium product, but despite this, it still received the title of "invention of the century".

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru27.04.2015