Russia's Bet on Biopharma ("Pharmaceutical Executive")

Дата публикации: 3 march 2014

Predicting the future with accuracy is complicated by the fact that the Russian market is in transition – and has been so ever since the end of the Soviet era in 1990. The legacy of communism still exerts a subtle influence on the domestic industry, which continues to be strong in manufacturing, packaging and other rote tasks suitable for a market characterized by inflexible tendering and static demand. Through the 1990s and well into the last decade, much of the old Soviet system's bench strength in fundamental research was destroyed, replaced by an emphasis on marketing to a middle class forced to purchase medicines out-of-pocket as the government safety net disappeared.

Here, Russia is clearly in a catch up phase, given that total health spending is only six per cent of GDP, compared to the OECD average of nearly 10 per cent. "What is still fundamental about health in Russia is that patients bear most of the cost burden–two thirds of spending is out-of-pocket," notes Anton Artyomov, head of Aston Group, a Moscow-based market research, analytics and intelligence firm. "Today, we have a much more commercialized system. What this means in practice is public oversight is sporadic, transactions are not very transparent, it is hard to account for costs, and the quality of care and professionalism outside major urban centers is quite low. "