The first meeting within the framework of the Export Champions Program by the National Champions Association was dedicated to the overseas supply of the pharmaceuticals and the medical equipment

April 2, a cycle of export-themed meetings has commenced at the office of the Russian Venture Company arranged by the National Champions Association in 2024.

The Export Champions Program is to support the international business activities of the rapid-growing hi-tech companies. The first topic on the agenda was the export of the pharmaceuticals and the medical equipment.

The representatives of Innopraktika, the Technological Sovereignty Export Association, Skolkovo and other expert structures took part in the discussion. The discussion also engaged the representatives of the major companies in these two sectors. The initiative on holding the event was supported by the Innovation Pharmaceuticals Committee of the Association.

In her welcoming speech, Natalia Popova, Public Ombud for the protection of rights of the leading hi-tech companies, First Deputy General Director of Innopraktika, has noted that competition with Big Pharma is an immense challenge for any market participant promoting the business development. “When developing and launching the first-in-class or next-in-class innovational product, the domestic market is insufficient to provide for the return of the investments. Therefore, in some cases, the necessity of an export strategy for the Russian innovative pharmaceutical companies is a matter-of-course when launching new products,” – Natalia Popova said.

Andrei Bezrukov, the President of the Technological Sovereignty Export Association, has shared his extensive experience in the comprehensive work on promoting the Russian solutions abroad. He has noted the great role of the consistent comprehensive work on developing the export channels for existing and new markets. According to Mr. Bezrukov, this work will bring higher results in the long run than the isolated support for individual exporting companies.

Andrei Ivashchenko, Head of the Innovation Pharmaceuticals Committee and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at ChemRar Group, highlighted that despite the current visible growth in the demand for the Russian advanced generics in the friendly countries, the long-term development of exports in the pharmaceutical industry is only possible through the innovative products which requires operable mechanisms of the state support for launching the groundbreaking model for the Russian pharma development. Only a few countries in the world can develop truly innovative drugs and Russia is one of them. The COVID-19 pandemics experience has vividly shown that only the USA, Europe, China and Russia could promptly cope with the development of their own corona drugs and vaccines. In Russia, it was possible due to the groundwork laid under the Pharma-2020 program in the last 10 years. In the current conditions, A. A. Ivashchenko sees, among other things, the transfer of the inventions suspended due to the financial crisis abroad as one of the potential solutions to drive the growth of innovative pharmaceuticals in Russia.

And best practices for supporting the pharma exports, such as those applied in China, shall also be mastered. We are still very far from providing such level of support to our manufacturers. The efforts of the Russian pharmaceutical companies that have already reached some success in the foreign countries shall also be combined for them to share their best practices with each other on transparent and favourable terms.

Kamila Zarubina, VP, Chief Executive of the Biological and Medical Technology Cluster at the Skolkovo Fund, has shared her experience in the industry support provided by Skolkovo to its residents, and presented some suggestions on enhancing the international cooperation and assistance in entering the foreign markets for the companies. Among those, the suggestion to support the international certification of products resonated the most with the audience.

Also, the national champion companies from the pharmaceutical and medical sectors have made their presentations. In their speeches, they have mentioned the most relevant challenges for export activities mainly related to the interactions with the local regulatory authorities in the target regions. The participants have obtained a consensus on developing the sectoral cooperation between the exporters for improving the efficiency and speeding-up the launch of the Russian drugs and medical products in the foreign markets.

At the end of the event, Aleksandr Likhanov, General Director of the National Champions Association, has noted that the Association sees the interest of hi-tech companies in operating abroad. He has thanked the partners for their interest in the event and has shared the plans on further steps in conducting the collaborative comprehensive work on the export-related requests from the hi-tech businesses both in pharmaceutical and medical sectors, as well as in other industries.