Dive Brief:
- Pharma 2020 was launched in 2011 by Vladimir Putin, current President of Russia, in order to intensify domestic investment in the national pharmaceutical industry.
- The target investment set forth by Putin was $1.8 bllion, which he said would help sufficiently increase domestic manufacturing, while decreasing reliance on imports.
- During his speeches about Pharma 2020, Putin has been emphatic that Russia has no intention of banning imports.
Dive Insight:
The Vital and Essential Drugs (VED) list in Russia includes 567 pharmaceutical products. Among those, only 16.4%, or 93 products, were manufactured in Russia in 2012. A total of 267 medications, representing 47.1%, were manufactured by both domestic and foreign companies, and the remaining 207—36.5%—were manufactured by foreign companies. Now, based on the most recent VED list from December 2014, 68%, or 413 of 608 drugs, are locally manufactured, in-Pharmatechnologist reports.
After Putin's initial speech in 2011, foreign investments in Russia by pharmaceutical manufacturers accelerated. In 2011, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) formed a joint venture with Binnopharm, a Russian pharma company. In addition, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Novo Nordisk have all invested in Russia.
Putin made the point that importing drug ingredients and compounding them in Russia does not count as domestic production, and that all production, including sourcing ingredients, needs to occur on Russian soil.
While it's too soon to tell if Russia will hit its 2020 target, there is preliminary evidence that domestic manufacturing is improving based on VED stats, and the Russian market is only continuing to grow. Experts predict that by 2020, the value of the Russian pharmaceutical market will be $35 billion.