Kira Zaslavskaya: “If there is a need for favipiravir, we are ready to produce more than half a million packages of Areplivir within a week”
Kira Zaslavskaya, Director of New Products at Promomed Group, took part in the press conference “Unavailability of medicines: is Russia facing a shortage?”, which was held in the press center of the National News Service news agency.
At the event, participants discussed current problems of the pharmaceutical market, including the risk of drug shortages, legislative initiatives related to the optimization of processes in the industry, and so on. One of the key issues that concern not only patients, but also the medical community, is drug shortages and possible measures to prevent the lack of drugs for the treatment of socially significant diseases.
In her speech, Kira Zaslavskaya drew the attention of the press conference participants to the fact that the revision of approaches to the compilation of a list of medicines in short supply will contribute to the timely introduction of import-substituting drugs to the market: “Taking into account the established timelines for obtaining a marketing authorization certificate, the inclusion of a drug in the short supply list only after a noticeable shortage occurs makes it difficult to provide timely medical care. Important measures that will allow our country to create a stock of essential drugs for the treatment of socially significant diseases and ensure the availability of necessary medicines at every time include: advance analysis of the future demand for medicines with a 9-month horizon or more, forecasting the risks of supply interruption, preparing an adequate replacement with the selection of alternative treatment approaches, as well as compilation a list of medicines taking into account these data.”
Kira Zaslavskaya then stressed the importance of government support for domestic pharmaceutical companies: “When developing our own innovative drugs, for example for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, we always begin with the interests of patients and the medical community and work in accordance with the current legal norms. We develop our own technologies for the production of both pharmaceutical substances and finished dosage forms; this allows us to significantly improve the quality of medicines. State support measures aimed at creating a favorable legal and investment climate, developing national human resources potential and stimulating interaction between research institutes and pharmaceutical manufacturers will stimulate the emergence of domestic innovations, and therefore ensure true import substitution, pharmaceutical independence and increasing the export potential of Russia.”
In addition, the expert commented on one of the pressing issues that has been frequently discussed in the media lately – the availability of favipiravir products. Kira Zaslavskaya: “If we return to the issue of favipiravir, then we can assure you, being the developers and manufacturers of Areplivir (INN favipiravir) from the pharmaceutical substance to the finished dosage form, that we are ready to meet the demand of any volume and the needs of the whole country. We continue our research, bear in mind the predicted effectiveness of drugs of this group in the treatment of not only coronavirus infection, but also influenza and other viruses – the most common pathogens of ARVI. Therefore, we already have a stock of both the substance and the finished dosage form. If the need arises, we can produce more than half a million packs within a week. I would like to note that Promomed Group also manufactures other highly effective drugs of the same group, for example Esperavir (INN molnupiravir), which are now also widely available in pharmacies.”
