On 29th of June there was a business forum «Export is a priority: how to surmount barriers and to realize the export potential of import substituting products» in «Rossiyskaya Gazeta» media center. The forum has become the kick-off event of the Business Club of Leaders of Russian Import Substitution, established by the Organizing Committee «Priority» Award by the Federal State Budgetary Institution «Editorial «Rossiyskaya Gazeta»» and the Russian export center.

The main topic of the forum  is a successful launch of Russian products to the international markets. A General Director of ARPM Vikor Dmitriev was a speaker at a strategic session and spoke about import substitution in the industry.

«We always did import substitution, even before the sanctions novels and their macroeconomic consequences. Russian pharmaceutical market is a market of generic medicines, i.e. reproduced medicines. The situation which emerged after 2014 has strengthened this process. We have to understand clearly that the import substitution is effective only if it is targeting at the export. Otherwise, we will stagnate and will become a stagnant swamp. Unfortunately, today the ratio of import and export in the pharmaceutical industry is 1:15. According to the last year data, we exported $500 million and imported products at the amount of $7 billion», — the speaker mentioned.

Also, the General Director of ARPM has highlighted the major things, which if not interfere, then definitely make the life of pharmaceutical industry more complicated. «First of all, not always our regulatory internal procedures are harmonized with the relevant procedures in foreign countries. This leads to doubling of many pre-registration procedures which we do while launching a medicine at the Russian market. These include clinical trials, GMP quality assurance and many other processes.

Secondly, the issue of patent protection is getting more urgent. We have a lack of experience in patenting our products abroad. We clearly understand that with a generic medicine we will face the tough competitive environment. To launch a new original medicine at the market without the patent protection is very risky as there is a possibility of a quick reproduction by a competitor. Our experience in international patenting is small and still poor, in order to be calm about the destiny of a medicine and its patent protection overseas.

Thirdly, a purely technical question, which concerns Russian trade representatives abroad. We do not always get an adequate support from these structures, even in CIS countries. Periodically we face with the issue of currency conversion in Uzbekistan. Due to this problem many companies leave this market, although their products are highly demanded. The issue is that exporting a product abroad, we can not plan to receive funds for it.», — Viktor Dmitriev mentioned.

The speaker has expressed the hope that due to the Club’s activity, the mentioned issues will be solved faster and more efficiently.