Highlighting ground-breaking advancements in women's healthcare, Vikram Punia spoke at the session "Ensuring Drug Security: A Strategic Priority for the State and Business in the Public Interest." His comments provided an honest assessment of Russia's progress toward pharmaceutical autonomy:

“Let me be honest when I talk about women's health. Pharmasyntez has advanced significantly in the last five years. We have constructed one of the biggest facilities for hormonal drugs in Europe. Women's health continues to be a key component of our mission, even though we work in a variety of therapeutic areas. To begin, the Central Institute of Endocrinology requested that we be gathered by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2015. At that time, we were also told that the nation is entirely dependent on imported hormonal drugs, with over 95% of all hormonal drugs being imported. Pharmasyntez took up the challenge and got to work actively in this area. The company's biggest challenges were technology development, funding, and getting past the foreign lobby. Because these medications are measured in micrograms rather than grams or even milligrams, it was extremely challenging to develop them technologically. Furthermore, these technologies were unavailable in Russia and remain unavailable elsewhere. From 2015 to 2018, we collaborated continuously with a sizable team of R&D experts. Additionally, we had created the full line of hormonal medications by the end of 2018, including both systemic and sex hormones. In 2019, we presented our plans to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Obtaining funding was the second major hurdle. We calculated that it would cost $100 million, a significant amount, to build the required infrastructure. I’d like to express my appreciation to the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade for their prompt assistance through loans, subsidies, and other incentives. With their support, we secured the funds, made the project investment, and started production in 2021. Foreign lobbying in the hormonal drug industry was the third issue. Over the past 30 years, foreign companies have been actively preventing domestic manufacturers from entering this market by training doctors and shaping the system on how to use their products. Let me take a moment to explain the benefits of using hormonal medications, at least those made in our country. I'll outline three key reasons. The first is the drugs' quality. I am able to state with confidence that Russian hormonal medications are currently of the same or even better quality in some areas. The supply's dependability is the second problem. Foreign businesses can simply leave the market and abandon their patients because they have their own goals and plans. For instance, Fludrocortisone is a medication that completely vanished, even though patients require it daily and throughout their lives. Although it was out of stock, customer testimonies indicate that people purchased it for RUB 3–4,000 per pack in various countries worldwide. We developed, studied, registered, and brought this medication to the market. Today, it’s available in nearly every pharmacy across the country and costs just RUB 300–400. This medication is of excellent quality, ten times less expensive, and reliably available at all times. Let's look at Divigel (Estradiol—INN). Its discontinuation by the Finnish company posed a significant problem for the country. We have created and carried out the required research and are currently getting ready to launch this autumn. The third reason is affordability. We maintain our high quality while keeping our prices 30–40% lower than those of foreign medications. In the context of drug sales, the foreign lobby is a different matter. In the past, international producers asserted that Russian medications did not fulfill quality requirements. They can no longer say that, at least when it comes to hormones, since we are prepared to study both our own and foreign medications and demonstrate that we are not inferior. Naturally, there are a number of ways to avoid this, but there are also steps that can be taken to address it. The state’s support measures need to be discussed with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Health, and Roszdravnadzor”