Speech by Denis Remenyako on "Business-State Interaction, Lessons from the Pandemic" at the Strong Russia

The key theme of the Summit is "Strategic partnership between government and business: in pursuit of national development goals until 2024". 

Sectoral and thematic sessions were devoted to the prospects of development of priority industries - healthcare, the fuel and energy complex, the defence industry and infrastructure projects.

The panel discussion on healthcare development, moderated by Petr Vitalyevich Glybochko, Rector of the First Sechenov Moscow State Medical University, discussed the need for structural changes in the healthcare system, the development of digital healthcare and the resolution of current administrative, regulatory and legal issues in the pharmaceutical and medical industries with representatives of government agencies, the scientific community and the most active part of Russian business.

A presentation by Denis Remenyako, General Director of pharmaceutical company FC Grand Capital, entitled 'Interaction between business and government, lessons from the pandemic', was presented.

In particular, it mentioned the government's work in the field of pharmaceuticals: the formation of unified regulations compliant with global pharmaceutical production standards, prompt work to regulate the pricing of medicines important to the consumer in order to reduce the risk of the disappearance or shortage of VEDs, measures which are the basis of the stability of the country's medicines supply and the guarantee of sustainable development of the Russian pharmaceutical industry.

Denis Remenyako paid particular attention to the "lessons of the pandemic" and to those areas where the successful experience of business and government working together should be continued. For example, the drug shortage that emerged at the end of 2020 could have been averted by manufacturing additional quantities of then deficit drugs - the production capacity was able to cover this need. In order to respond promptly to such situations in the future, Denis Remenyako suggested the idea of optimising cooperation between producers and state regulators. In his view, the best tool would be to create a specialised structure on the basis of one of the state development institutions, with a budget and authority to make emergency purchases of pharmaceutical substances and medicines from manufacturers and distribute them to the regions.

The existence of such a structure in February 2020 would allow, based on monitoring of the epidemiological situation worldwide, the timely emergency procurement of pharmaceuticals and the placement of orders for the production of medicines, which would help to avoid the shortages faced by patients.

In this way, such an entity would be able to monitor the availability of medicines across the country using a drug labelling system, and procure medicines to prevent and avoid defects. This tool can systematically ensure not only the security of pharmaceutical supply in the Russian Federation in case of emergencies, but also become an incentive for manufacturers, to develop the capacity of enterprises without fear of lack of demand for the products.

The session was also attended by:

Aleksey Viktorovich Alekhin, Adviser to the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade on: Public-Private Partnerships in the Post-COVID Era

Yuriy Viktorovich Arkharov, Member of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, Senator of the Russian Federation on: The Russian Healthcare System Today: Problems and Solutions

Oksana Mikhailovna Drapkina, Director of the National Medical Research Centre for Preventive Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation on: Public Health