Pharmacy Industry News: Shot in the arm for Russia’s ailing drug industry
Shot in the arm for Russia’s ailing drug industry
Foreign manufacturers are racing to secure positions in Russia’s burgeoning pharmaceuticals market while the Kremlin gets tough on imported medicines
The Russian government has unveiled a new plan to modernise Russia’s pharmaceutical industry and give local firms a greater presence in international markets, injecting £2.4bn of state funds into the sector.
In late 2010, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin set the target of domestically producing 90pc of Russia’s vital medicines and 50pc of its medical equipment by 2020, while increasing exports eight times. Foreign pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment manufacturers in Russia would face sales restrictions if they were not prepared to share their expertise, he warned.
“We will have restrictions for them on our market if there are no imports of manufacturing facilities and technologies,” Mr Putin said, adding that the trade barriers would be gradually implemented.
Dmitry Genkin, CEO of Russia’s Pharmsynthez, which raised £10.9m in an initial public offering (IPO) last November, said Russia had struggled with the Soviet legacy of building most of Eastern Europe’s pharmaceutical industry while neglecting its own needs: “It left a huge gap between fundamental sciences and applied science like medicine when the Soviet Union collapsed.”
Russian firms have long awaited government support, but current spending levels in the country fall far short of the money spent to support research and development in Europe and America, Mr Genkin noted. “The money being spent by the Russian government is still peanuts compared to spending by the European Commission or the US National Institutes of Health,” he said.
Nevertheless, Russia’s pharmaceutical market is growing twice as fast as US and European markets and has already become a key battleground for pharmaceutical companies whose sales have stalled in Western markets as patents expire. The Russian brokerage Uralsib said: “The pharmaceutical market, boosted by consumer and government spending, is set to outperform Russian GDP while the fragmented regional pharmacy segment offers big consolidation potential to leading chains.”
To cash in on the market’s growth potential, Western drug giants are determined that they will not be caught out by import barriers and are already setting up domestic manufacturing bases in Russia.
Just before Christmas, the Swiss giant Novartis said it would invest £310m in Russia over the next five years, building a production plant in St Petersburg to focus on local manufacturing and research and development partnerships with local firms. Switzerland’s Nycomed and Denmark’s Novo Nordisk have also announced plans to start producing in Russia, while Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline struck a vaccine deal in November with Moscow-based Binnopharm.
And the French giant Sanofi-Aventis in January appointed a new emerging markets management team to boost its market share in Russia, which is considered one of its key markets.
Meanwhile, Russian companies are also looking at markets overseas. Pharmsynthez said it will use part of its IPO funds to purchase pharmaceutical producers in Europe, as well as in the US and Israel. The drug manufacturer is looking for small, growing and profitable companies which own production facilities, Mr Genkin says.
With the push to promote domestic pharmaceuticals, the Kremlin has opened up a new front in the war to diversify the Russian economy.
Analysts are excited by the government’s initiative as it gives them a new sector in which to invest. In the last week of January, Uralsib launched research into the pharmaceutical sector with a report entitled Just what the doctor ordered .
“Russian pharma producers offer an excellent domestic story and access to defensive market niches and strong cash flows,” the Uralsib analyst Tigran Hovhannisyan wrote. “The relative underperformance of Russia’s pharmaceutical market by comparison to other Bric markets is compensated for by the market leaders’ higher margins and consolidation potential.”
Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute Recognizes Innovation in Drug Benefit Industry
The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute ( PBMI : ) has awarded four 2011 Rx Benefit Innovation Awards : to the Center for Health Value Innovation, Cigna Pharmacy Management, CVS Caremark / Arcelor Mittal, and InformedRx, an SXC company. The awards were announced today at PBMI’s 16th Annual Drug Benefit
The recipients of this year’s awards were selected based on the project’s overall originality, strength of reported results, and potential to improve patient outcomes. “Our 2011 award recipients have demonstrated creative thinking by designing solutions to address numerous challenges in prescription drug programs,” says Tim Watson, PharmD, MBA, Executive Director of PBMI. “Their example will inspire other plan sponsors to implement one or more of these approaches in their own populations.”
The Center for Health Value Innovation is being recognized for their pioneering work in the design, implementation and measurement of Value Based Insurance Designs. The center’s co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Jack Mahoney led the charge behind Value Based Design with a firm resolve to prove that lowering access barriers to health care services could ultimately engage the most at risk populations, thereby improving care and lowering costs. The center’s work to measure and disseminate outcomes associated with these design strategies continues to provide guidance to others who wish to implement these programs in their population.
Cigna Pharmacy Management Online pharmacy viagra
Cigna Pharmacy Management is being recognized for their creative approach to contracting for pharmaceuticals that is based on achievement of specific therapeutic outcomes. In 2009, Cigna Pharmacy Management and Merck & Co., Inc. entered into the pharmacy benefit management industry’s first national outcomes based contract between a PBM and a pharmaceutical firm. A year after the contract was implemented, results showed that there was improved blood sugar control and blood sugar testing during the study. The company stated that “estimated savings for individuals and employers could be almost $8,000 per person who has diabetes per year when that individual increases adherence to over 80%.”
CVS Caremark / ArcelorMittal
CVS Caremark / ArcelorMittal are being recognized for their efforts to improve the treatment of diabetes in the steel company’s population. More than half of people diagnosed with a chronic disease, including diabetes, are either non-adherent to the prescribed medication or have a gap in care. The program designed and implemented by the companies sought to improve medication adherence in diabetics by engaging pharmacists who are expertly trained in medication therapy management principals. The program included both telephonic counseling, and face-to-face interventions, according to the patient’s preference. After six months, the program demonstrated significant improvements in closing gaps in care and increasing medication adherence compared to a control group. In addition, the program results demonstrated health care savings of nearly $1,700 annually for patients with diabetes.
InformedRx, an SXC company
InformedRx is being recognized for their efforts to minimize inappropriate prescribing of controlled substances. Use of multiple narcotics can have adverse effects on both members and plan sponsors, including: compromised patient safety, risk of addiction and diminished quality of life, risk of on the job injuries and wasting scarce health plan resources. InformedRx designed a program of pharmacist review and intervention in which targeted interventions were sent to physicians with the goal of improving prescribing patterns for this important class of medications. The program demonstrated strong results, including: 58% fewer narcotic prescriptions written, 57% fewer prescribers writing narcotic prescriptions, and an average savings per case of $105.16.
Pharma supply chain changes recommended by GPs
The changing face of NHS procurement could mean further changes to the way processors involved in the pharmaceutical supply chain operate.
Eight out of ten GPs believe that pharmacists should have a bigger role in commissioning orders, according to a new survey by Pfizer.
Half of those polled indicated that closer involvement of pharmacists in commissioning decisions would improve the effectiveness of patient-focused care, while improving cost-efficiency.
The publication of these findings follows the release of a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this week, which indicated that the global pharmaceutical industry will need to adapt to meet the sector’s emerging needs.
Consultancy global pharmaceutical and life sciences leader Simon Friend suggested that the industry will have to develop a new supply chain model if it is to successfully address changing demands.
According to the Chemist and Druggist, Pfizer pharmacy strategy development manager Ian Hunter explained: “However with the government’s vision for the NHS, it is of paramount importance that steps are taken to enhance this relationship.”
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the pharmaceutical industry includes; Hoppers – mobile loading hoppers – flexible bulk containers