Life at command
Belarusian pharmacies are under a heavy administrative pressure
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 1, cont’d p. 8]
Temporarily out of reach. Await reply
Pharmaceutical business is apprehensive about new legislative initiatives
Apparently, just very few people know based on what principle representatives of industry-specific ministries choose places where to communicate with the business community. And, mostly like, the conference on legal issues of the pharma industry hosted by The Moscow Times on April 21 broke this principle. It is not so important now whether it was the event planner’s fault or the experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Health, Federal Antimonopoly Service, and Federal Tariff Service who were to speak were busy at the time. The conference participants were eager to listen to the officials, but finally they had to discuss all the issues among themselves. Probably that was why the conference’s mood was rather pessimistic. All latest ministerial initiatives were strongly criticized, while there was no one to respond.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, pp. 2- 3]
Crisis is no obstacle for digital technologies
Marketing consultants recommend pharma companies to focus on web-based drug promotion
E-visits and other means of communication between pharma companies and doctors that are already quite popular in Western countries just start making their way to Russia. However, the efficiency of multichannel drug promotion is set to increase; therefore expert believe that this promo mode shall be included in the corporate strategic plans already today, especially taking into account unavoidable cost-cutting regarding field force under the crisis.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 4]
Pharma academics made their choice
The main pharma industry award was handed out
The jubilee 15th ceremony of awarding the Platinum Ounce for 2014 was held on April 23 in the Europeysky Event Hall in Moscow. The event’s topic was movies, which was not by chance. The professional community has nicknamed this award “Pharmaceutical Oscar” long ago.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 5]
Chasing the Big Brother
Integration of private healthcare into the general system is still hampered
Players of the commercial medical services market point out three mains problems putting brakes on its development, namely excess regulation, discrimination, and state domination. Currently, private medicine is like the ugly duckling that often has its ears boxed just for nothing and that is good for nothing, in the government’s opinion. Meanwhile, commercial medical centers may join the general healthcare system without any additional costs and thus give a strong impetus for development.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, pp. 6-7]
They won’t be helped from abroad
Ukraine’s example of state drug procurement doesn’t suit Russia
There was a piece of news in the media a few days ago that a final decision was made regarding the implementation of a new state drug procurement system in Ukraine. Starting from 2015, the procurement procedure will be driven out of the Ministry of Health competence as the state authorities decided to have recourse of international organizations. This experiment in Ukraine attracts interest for a number of reasons. However, Russian experts do not support the neighboring state's optimism when projecting the new procurement system to the domestic pharma market.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 9]
On benefits and “budgetphages”
The marketing research sector has been developing following the pharma market. However, companies are not always ready to use research results and rely on them when making business decisions. Apart from the money issue, a certain role in such attitude is played by the belief that marketing is theory that not always may be applied in practice. The crisis that made many market players revise their management structures and business processes affected marketing consultants as well. Top managers of marketing companies argue about what the minimum marketing research package for evaluating drug promotion efficiency may be, whether pharma companies may do without marketing consultants’ services at all as well as about the analytical and consulting sector prospects.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 10]
Please keep developing regulations; we’ll wait
Active reforms underway in the medical device circulation sphere scare manufacturers not so much with the objectives declared in this process as with the number of the documents, their incoherence as well as absence of a systemic approach. As an example, basically every market player cites the situation connected with the development of the industry-specific law “On Circulation of Medical Devices”. So far, it took a few years to develop the law, but still nobody would venture to say that this work is nearing its end. The market has been operating without a law intended to regulate its activities for more than 10 years. The latest draft law appeared in mid-April, but it sparked neither joy nor desire to discuss it in the professional community. Some confessed that they have not even read it. That was what made PharmVestnik correspondent Oxana Baranova willing to ask medical device manufacturers whether an industry-specific law was necessary right now, during an economic crisis.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 11]
Come and get it
In late May 2015, the 1st All-Russian congress “The Right to Drug” will be held. It is being organized by the Patient Advocate League. The main distinguishing feature of this event is its unprecedentedly large scale. League’s President Alexander SAVERSKIY is to discuss with the professional community the necessity of covering all Russian citizens with drugs for free. He is sure that the Constitution of the Russian Federation provides for such a right (for more details, please see “Why drugs aren’t free of charge”, PharmVestnik #14, 21/04/2015). Mr. Saverskiy also hopes that the congress will make it possible to find out the exact sum total necessary for covering all Russian citizens with drugs. He points out that the only condition for getting a drug for free shall be a doctor’s prescription.
Is it true that in Russia all drugs prescribed by a doctor shall be free of charge? That was the question that PharmVestnik correspondent Polina Zvezdina addressed to some market experts.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 12]
Why pay more?
Drug competitive bidding report as of 2014
According to Cursor Marketing, drug competitive bidding in Russia in 2014 totaled 324.35 bn RUB at starting prices and 276.0 bn RUB at winner prices. Due to competitive bidding, state funds saving was 48.34 bn RUB, nearly twice up year-on-year (28.15 bn RUB).
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 13]
Bringing up these arts and wiles short
In the Jewish Autonomous Region, a state-owned pharmaceutical enterprise may be liquidated because of debts originating as a result of being a guarantor of the peasant farm enterprise “Cooperation” that has failed to reimburse the bank credit. Pharmacies in other regions of the Siberian Federal District and Far Eastern Federal District did not play the role of guarantors, however many of them are facing economic problems due to other causes.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 14]
“Armored” antibiotic drug
Rostov scientists are in search of a way to overcome microorganism drug resistance. The Russian government has already allocated 5 mn RUB for this project. As the problem of decreasing antibiotic efficacy and absence of new antibiotics is of a global scale, there is no doubt that the research findings will be commercialized.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 14]
For the benefit of welfare recipients
On Stavropol territory governor’s order, the so-called “social show-cases” displaying drugs cheaper than 150 RUB were formed at the state and municipal drugstores. According to pharmacists, customers appreciated this new approach to layout, while market players had opinions divided on this issue.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 15]
Nuclear medicine
The top management of the Ural Federal University started negotiations with Rosatom Corporation on a joint program for training nuclear medicine specialists. The University Diagnostic Center and Nuclear Medicine Clinic will be the basis for educational and research activities.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 15]
Two thirds “odd man”
Import substitution program outlook in Russia
The Russian pharma industry development program has approached its halfway point. Meantime, most of its implementation indicators are still rather far from being on target. For example, local drugs account for merely 23% of the total Russian market in value terms as of 2014. However, notwithstanding relatively modest quantitative results, the Russian pharma industry has lately undergone appreciable qualitative changes both in terms of the drug range being manufactured locally and in terms of the drug marketing techniques. Additional opportunities for local players and, respectively, risks for foreign players may be associated with the much talked-of “odd-man-out” regulation. Based on the evaluation by RNC Pharma, Russian companies will be able to claim at least 41% in the state-funded markets within the next 1 to 2 years.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, pp. 16- 17]
Improper drug naming
Drug naming resembles playing scrabble
Farxiga, Hetlioz, Otezla, and Zykadia are not the names of far-away planets. These are the trademarks of the drugs recently approved by the FDA. Trademarks are becoming increasingly mysterious, and this trend will persist as the number of approvals grows from year to year. At the same time, the regulatory agency retains strict requirements to drug naming; in particular, the new drug names must differ in a certain way not only from the names of the already existing drugs but also from ordinary words in any language.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 18]
First thing
Private Label issues regarding drugstore chains or distributors
PharmVestnik Editor-in-Chief Herman Inozemtsev visited the European leading event for the pharmacy world, Cosmofarma, held in Bologna (Italy) and wondered whether there was a clear understanding of the Private Label (PL) structure and role at its current development stage in Russia. He also wondered what decisions had to be made by a pharmacy chain director or PL project leader before continuing the PL development at his/her own pharmacy chain or distributor company.
[PharmVestnik #15, 28/04/2015, p. 22]
