The future has already arrived: Russian pharmaceutical industry on guard of national security

Peter Bely, Chairman of the Board of Directors of PJSC PROMOMED, spoke at the 14th Corporate Governance Forum and spoke about the key challenges and prospects of the Russian pharmaceutical industry. In his speech, he stressed the importance of the company's IPO, the need to develop innovative drugs and export potential, and outlined key areas of the fight against metabolic diseases and cancer.

Petr Bely noted that the company's IPO was a necessary step for the development of innovative medicines and strengthening its position in the global market.
"Given the huge financial and time costs of developing innovative drugs, it was the IPO that allowed us to open up new opportunities. The pharmaceutical industry is not just providing the foundations of national security, it is building a new future. It was the development of pharmaceuticals that made it possible to increase life expectancy from 60 to 80 years. We are able to reach the milestone of 100 years, and much has already been done for this: drugs have been created, including by PROMOMED, that have made it possible to defeat serious metabolic diseases. This is of great importance for the health of the nation, since it is obesity, diabetes and metabolic disorders that are the root cause of vascular and cardiac problems. However, today we face an even more serious challenge – to develop drugs for the treatment of oncology," Petr Bely emphasized.

The annual cost of cancer treatment in Russia is about 300 billion rubles. "But the country is suffering much more serious losses due to the high mortality rate from cancer. The task of the state is to preserve and increase the working capacity of the population. Investments aimed at developing anti-cancer therapies will help improve the country's socio–economic performance in the long term," said Petr Bely.

The cost of treating cancer and metabolic problems (strokes and heart attacks) is about 3% of GDP, while overall medical costs in Russia are 3.8% of GDP. According to Peter Bely, the most modern methods of treating metabolic diseases are already available in Russia. PROMOMED scientists and technologists are actively working in the field of cancer drug development.

The introduction of innovative developments aimed at the treatment of diseases previously considered incurable will make it possible to make a breakthrough not only in Russian medicine, but also to present the achievements of Russian scientific thought in the international arena. Russian innovations may turn out to be more competitive. After all, international pharmaceutical companies incur enormous costs for maintaining headquarters around the world, R&D centers, as well as attracting experts at the level of Nobel laureates.

"These costs are always shifted onto the shoulders of consumers, which explains the difference in the price of medicines in Western countries and in Russia. Foreign drugs can be ten times more expensive than domestic innovative solutions," said Petr Bely.

Russia has a strong pharmaceutical industry, so Russian developments have great potential for export.