The speaker at the forum was the President of Pharmasyntez Group Vikram Punia. In the beginning of his speech, he expressed his appreciation to the currently implemented Pharma 2020 program. Vikram Punia noted the positive results that were achieved: the program was fully completed ahead of schedule.
- In the past 5-7 years, dozens of pharmaceutical plants were constructed, billions of dollars were invested in the development of the industry, innovative technologies were explored, and new drugs were released, emphasized the President of Pharmasyntez Group.
Vikram Punia also shared his opinion about the Pharma 2030 program. He mentioned that the program will provide the sustainable moderate growth; however, a breakthrough in the pharmaceutical industry owing to it is not expected. According to the President of Pharmasyntez, only the leading Russian pharmaceutical producers can influence the situation.
- The companies that produce generics cannot make big money, said Vikram Punia. To succeed, they need their own innovative drugs, which is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Small businesses cannot carry such a burden. Russia has no pharmaceutical enterprises of this scale yet. However, a number of producers have a good potential. The Ministry should support large and rapidly developing domestic enterprises as they are the only ones who have means for the development of their own innovative drugs.
Concerning Pharmasyntez, the company plans to double its turnover to 30 billion rubles by 2020. Vikram Punia specified that this will be done owing to the portfolio expansion, namely, the release of new innovative drugs and generics. By 2020, Pharmasyntez Group is going to unveil a new antihepatitis drug whose clinical trial is already completed.
Also, in two years, the company plans to launch the second stage of the Pharmasyntez-Nord plant in St. Petersburg, which will be specialized in the manufacture of antitumor drugs. The amount of investment planned is 4 billion rubles.
It would be recalled that the first stage of the Pharmasyntez-Nord plant was launched in 2017. The enterprise is focused on the development and manufacture of advanced and efficient cytostatic drugs as solid drug forms, lyophilized powders, and concentrated solutions.