Cut a window into the big farm

Petersburg went into pharmacology
Maria Tsygankova, <url>The market for the production of medicines in Russia should change dramatically by 2020.

The share of national producers (both domestic and foreign, who have invested in Russian industry) will grow, according to the plans of officials, to 50%. At the same time, the main state investments will be spent not so much on the construction of new plants, but on the development of applied science in this area. The details were found out by the correspondent of "Fontanka".

The international forum on Pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies has started in St. Petersburg. The first day gathered about 200 participants from all over the world. The event was opened in the presence of "distinguished" guests – the head of the city Valentina Matvienko and the Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Viktor Khristenko, who, either impressed by the governor's report, or under the influence of the activity of St. Petersburg officials and business, said that the city on the Neva is one of the leaders of the pharmaceutical industry of the country.

"St. Petersburg has everything for the formation of a pharmacological cluster: both experience and conditions," said the head of the city Valentina Matvienko. According to her, in 2010, the production of medicines in the city increased by 24%. At the same time, the capacity will increase every year – at the moment there are 9 projects for the construction of new plants with a total investment of about 25 billion rubles. At the same time, 4 companies have already completed survey work on the allocated sites.

The city also plans to create an interuniversity research center. A program for the development of research initiatives is being developed and will be implemented. By 2013, new pharmacological production facilities should appear on the territory of the St. Petersburg business incubator.

According to Valentina Matvienko, in the period from 2012 to 2015, the city Chemical and Pharmaceutical Academy will also receive additional funds, more than 700 million rubles will be allocated to it.

The retail market of medicines in the first quarter of 2011 reached 112 billion rubles (for comparison, in 2010 its volume amounted to 523 billion rubles). According to Viktor Khristenko, the share of domestic manufacturers in the pharmacological market is 21-22%, in the products of the medical industry – only 16%. "Now we need to create a sustainable system of development and commercialization of new industries," the Minister of Industry and Trade believes. According to him, according to the federal target program, designed for the period up to 2020, 20 projects on drug substitution of foreign analogues and 60 on the creation of innovative medicines should start in the country this year.

At the same time, the state assumes up to 75% of the risks during development, and the country's right to intellectual property will be limited. Officials will only be able to transfer the right to manufacture medicines in the event that the developer cannot do it on his own.

The question of at what stage of the creation of a new drug its developers will be able to participate in tenders for state support remains open. The federal target program "cannot work with start-ups, this is not a project," Viktor Khristenko believes.

According to Elena Telnova, acting Head of Roszdravnadzor, currently there are 85 drug testing laboratories in Russia, including 51 quality control centers. In the near future, 7 federal laboratories will be created in 7 federal districts. At the same time, two of them are already operating in full mode – in Gudermes and Rostov-on-Don, as well as (in test mode) in Krasnoyarsk. There are plans to open similar institutions in Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk and Moscow.

"Our consumer receives high–quality medicines," Elena Telnova is sure. However, she also admits that imported drugs are cleaner than domestic ones. As for counterfeit medicines, as a rule, these are antiallergic, plasma substitutes and antibiotics produced in Russia, Germany and Hungary.

In the near future, 8 centers carrying out applied research should appear in the country. However, Viktor Khristenko believes that if domestic manufacturers are able to compete with foreign ones in the field of production and development of medicines, then everything is not all right with the medical industry in the country. "The topic of the medical industry is not high literature waiting for its dramaturgy," he says, noting that so far only the production of X–ray equipment has been established in Russia.

By the way, the leadership of St. Petersburg undertakes not only the formation of a modern pharmacological cluster, but also asks the Ministry of Health and Social Development to transfer part of its functions to the city. In particular, according to Valentina Matvienko, it is necessary to remove bureaucratic barriers to the registration of new medicines – the procedure sometimes stretches for years. "We have already sent proposals to the Ministry of Health and Social Development to transfer, as an experiment, the functions of conducting pre-registration examinations of the Chemical and Pharmaceutical Academy," the head of the city noted.

For reference:
The "Strategy for the development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry for the period up to 2020" was adopted by the Government of the country in October 2009. The total amount of funding under the federal target program should amount to 177 billion 622 million rubles. These funds, in particular, should go to: "professional development of personnel and creation of infrastructure" (35 billion 220 million rubles), "transition to GMP" (Good Manufacturing Practice – a system of norms, guidelines and rules for the production of medicines, 36 billion rubles), "development of medicines" (106 400 million billions). It is planned that the share of participation in the pharmacological market of national companies will grow to at least 50%, and the market itself from 4.5 to 6 times.

For reference 2:
The concept of creating a pharmaceutical cluster in St. Petersburg was approved by the city government on April 15, 2010. As the head of KERPPIT Evgeny Elin said at the time, there are already 11 academic institutes in the field of chemistry and medicine, 7 large enterprises for the production of medicines, there is a large clinical base in the city. The pharmaceutical cluster will be located in the Pushkinskaya industrial zone, the area of which is about 18.2 hectares. The companies CJSC "Pharm-Holding", LLC "Neon", CJSC "Biocad" and LLC "Geropharm" have already announced their intention to open production there.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru26.04.2011