Kira Zaslavskaya: "If there is a need for favipiravir, we are ready to produce more than half a million packages of Areplivir within a week

Kira Zaslavskaya, Director of New Products at Promomed Group, took part in the press conference "Disappearance of medicines: is Russia facing a shortage?", which was held at the press center of the National News Service news Agency.

The event discussed topical issues of the pharmaceutical market, including the threat of drug shortages, legislative initiatives related to optimizing processes in the industry, etc. One of the key issues that concern not only patients, but also the medical community, is the shortage of medicines and possible tools to prevent the lack of drugs for the treatment of socially significant diseases.

In her speech, Kira Zaslavskaya drew the attention of the event participants to the fact that the revision of approaches to the formation of a list of scarce medicines would facilitate the timely introduction of import-substituting drugs to the market: "Taking into account the regulated deadlines for obtaining a registration certificate, the inclusion of drugs in the defective list only after a significant shortage makes it difficult to provide timely medical care. A preliminary analysis of the future need for medicines with a horizon of 9 months or more, forecasting the risks of supply interruption, preparing an adequate replacement with the selection of alternative treatment approaches, as well as forming a list of medicines based on these data will allow the country to create a stock of essential drugs for the treatment of socially significant diseases and be sure that patients will always be provided necessary medicines."

In continuation, Kira Zaslavskaya pointed out the importance of government support for domestic pharmaceutical companies.: "When developing our own innovative drugs, for example, for the treatment of diabetes, we always take into account the interests of patients and the medical community and work in accordance with the norms of the current legal framework. We are developing our own technologies for creating both pharmaceutical substances and finished dosage forms, which significantly improves the quality of medicines. Government support measures aimed at creating a favorable legal and investment climate, developing the country's human resources and stimulating interaction between research institutes and pharmaceutical manufacturers will stimulate the emergence of domestic innovations, and therefore ensure true import substitution, drug independence and increasing the country's export potential."

In addition, the expert commented on one of the pressing issues that has been frequently discussed in the media lately – the availability of drugs based on favipiravir. Kira Zaslavskaya: "If we return to the issue of favipiravir, then we, as developers and manufacturers of Areplivir (INN favipiravir) from the substance to the finished dosage form, we can assure you that we are ready to meet the demand of any volume and the needs of the whole country. Taking into account the predicted effectiveness of drugs in this group in the treatment of not only coronavirus infection, but also influenza and other viruses, the most common causative agents of acute respiratory viral infections, our research continues. Therefore, we already have a supply of both the substance and the finished product. We can produce more than half a million packages within a week, if necessary. I would like to note that the Promomed group also produces other highly effective drugs of the same group, for example, Esperavir (INN molnupiravir), which are now also widely available in pharmacies."