Promomed Company participated in a round table in the State Duma

Maria Porokhnya, Director of Intellectual Property at Promomed Group, and Alexey Taganov, Medical Adviser at Promomed Group, participated in a round table in the State Duma dedicated to the problems of introducing domestic medicines into civilian circulation.

Among those invited to the event were State Duma deputies Fedot Tumusov and Evgeny Nifantiev, representatives of federal executive authorities, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, scientific institutions, institutions of higher education, members of associations of pharmaceutical manufacturers, developers and manufacturers of medicines, experts in the field of healthcare organization, chief freelance specialists of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation and other representatives of professional medical and legal communities (for example, Alexey Zalesov, one of Russia's leading patent attorneys and lawyers specializing in intellectual property).

The participants of the round table proposed to legislate that a number of preparatory production processes are not introduced into civil circulation. These include the development and scaling of technology for the production of active pharmaceutical substances and finished medicines, conducting preclinical and clinical trials, state expertise and registration, standardization and quality control, production, storage, transportation, importation into the Russian Federation, and offering to sell medicines. It was also decided to add actions for the state registration of the maximum selling price of manufacturers for drugs included in the list of vital and essential medicines to the above processes. At the same time, the provisions of the draft law that are being developed do not include the possibility of selling manufactured medicines until the patent expires.

The participants of the round table also discussed the issues of accelerating the implementation of the country's drug safety program, reducing the risk of long-term drug shortages, and ensuring prompt replacement of foreign medicines in the event of supply disruptions and the absence of goods on the shelves.

In her speech, Maria Porokhnya drew the attention of the audience to the fact that Russian pharmaceutical companies currently have two serious tasks: import substitution of well-known sought-after medicines and the creation of innovative domestic drugs. Maria focused the participants' attention on problematic issues that are not regulated by law and prevent domestic manufacturers from promptly carrying out import substitution in the interests of patients in need of permanent therapy. The intellectual and time resources that are spent on overcoming legislative imperfections in the implementation of the import substitution process could be focused on a complex and more important task – the development and patenting of new approaches to the treatment of various diseases that threaten the lives of patients both in Russia and abroad. Maria also clarified that Russia is not the only country that has faced such a problem, however, many states have already found a way out of such a difficult situation and have been able to minimize the risks of providing medicines to citizens.

Alexey Taganov shared statistical data on the defects of foreign medicines for the treatment of socially significant diseases, as well as suggestions from the medical community regarding the most relevant therapeutic areas for the development of import-substituting and innovative drugs.

Based on the proposals of the participants of the round table, a draft law will be developed, which is planned to be submitted for discussion at the spring session of the State Duma.