15 years ago, a small group of health professionals decided to get together to discuss, exchange, and, perhaps, resolve issues of common concern.  From these modest beginnings was born our association.

 

During this period of time, we have witnessed unprecedented changes, mixed with successes, and sometimes disappointments.  But always we have been able to persevere through the change and progress to the next level of development.

 

To highlight the pace and scale of change, a few examples are worth mentioning.  In the mid-1990’s, a pharmaceutical company in Russia rarely exceeded a workforce of more than 100, mostly sold OTC portfolio of products, and a few were just beginning to start clinical trials in Russia.

 

According to RMBC, the size of the pharmaceutical market in 1999 was approximately 1.3 billion Euros.  Indeed, as late as a few years ago, there were very few companies, whose turnover exceeded the 100 million mark (either in euros or dollars).

 

Today, we are at a new threshold.  The market in 2008 was almost 10 billion Euros, the workforce of most companies has long exceeded the 100 mark, and most importantly our industry has introduced new, innovative medicines and therapies, equal to any other developed country, which are saving patients’ lives and, generally, improving their quality of life.

 

I am not citing these figures to impress ourselves, or our guests.  I am citing them to make a simple, but extremely important, most often forgotten, point:  the change that we have experienced, and managed, were experienced, and managed, by our colleagues in established markets over a period of decades.  We are experiencing, and managing, them in ONE!

 

This has, inevitably, lead to serious stress: the stress of growing up, both as an industry and as professionals.  More importantly, it has lead to increased attention, and demands, upon our industry by stakeholders.  This means increased responsibility in all its aspects:

 

• social responsibility
• corporate responsibility
• ethical responsibility, and, most important of all,
• responsibility towards our patients

 

We have all witnessed the attention, which our industry has received recently, and continues to receive, by our stakeholders.  It is worth mentioning, independent of the merits, or de-merits, of the criticisms leveled against us, we, as market players, have sometimes, unfortunately, fallen short of the standards to which society is rightly entitled to, and which, we should, as leaders, strive to without any prodding.

 

If we seek to improve a situation, then in fairness, we should always look within ourselves first, before looking for external reasons.  Have we really done all that we can do to improve our governance?  Can we not do more to be beyond reproach in our relationships with our partners?  I am sure that if we are to be honest with ourselves, we will recognize that, at times, we have failed in our responsibilities.

 

However, I am confident that the recognition of an issue is the first step towards its resolution and I believe that we all recognize the enormity of our responsibility, and like the challenges in the past, we will overcome these together in the future.

 

In this respect, we can only welcome proposals which are being made to improve the regulation of market players.  As an industry, we can only be pleased and happy with greater transparency.  At the same time, we are very concerned about some of the proposals, which we believe are not only unnecessary, but even harmful.  And we would be not discharging our responsibilities, if we were not talk about these.

 

Specifically, I mention the issue of the proposed ban of the visits of the Medical Reps. to physicians during working hours. 

 

We believe that medical representatives should visit physicians, not because we have hidden, nefarious, intentions.  The misconduct of some does not mean that all are alike!  Neither do we believe they should visit physicians because their employment has a positive economic impact, although this is, in and of itself, not a minor issue.

 

We believe that medical representatives should visit physicians because, most often, this is the only source of information for physicians.  Let me elaborate this point further.  Medicine is a science, and practice, a practical science, if you will, where solutions are found through discussions, debates, exchange of ideas and experiences through congresses, publications and forums.  In short, it demands dialogue. 

 

A Google search in the area of oncology, diabetes and cardiology reveals the following hits:

 

                        Results in Russian Google                         Results in English Google

                                 18,170,000                                               90,700,000

 

A similar picture will be seen with other therapeutic areas.

 

Just in the field of diabetes last year, the official journal of the EASD, Diabetologia, 276 articles were published, with a total volume of 2334 pages.  It is unrealistic to expect that a practicing medical doctor can read all these materials and decide on his own as to how he treats his patients is appropriate or not.  Medical representatives are one of the main sources for this information, from which a physician makes his own decisions. 

 

Furthermore, the gathering of data on adverse events from the field, so-called pharmacovigilance, is one of the responsibilities of the representatives, who are in the field everyday.  This is the responsibility of pharmaceutical companies, which we cannot discharge if we do not have access to physicians.

 

We hope that the opinion of our industry will be taken into consideration when finalizing the proposed changes to the legislation.

 

Looking forward, we remain confident of the future of our industry in Russia.  The positive steps of the past few years have served as stepping stones into a stronger future.  The strong macro-economic stability of these years have not only given a boost to the pharmaceutical market, but also proved a strong cushion during one of the worst global economic downturns since the 1930’s.  The launch of the DLO/ONLS program, with all its imperfections notwithstanding, means that there are people in Russia today which receive modern medicines free of charge.  Some of these medicines not only prolong healthy lives, they actually cure previously incurable diseases. 

 

We also believe that we will see the implementation of measures, which will strengthen intellectual property rights and provide further stimulus for the introduction, and development, of ever more innovative medicines.

 

We expect that at some stage in the near future steps will be taken towards the implementation of a system of reimbursement for the working population, which will not only make social sense, but also economic sense.  As our recent published study on the treatment of diseases with the highest impact on the economy showed (the so-called “disease burden”), the loss to the GDP only in 2007 was approximately $270 Billion or 76% of the budget revenues of the Russian Federation in 2008!

 

It is easy for us as an the industry to be critical of developments, but when one approaches issues from close we can see that, despite the pits and falls, the direction as laid out by the government, and as outlined in the program “Pharma 2020” document, is the correct one. It is, therefore, no surprise that the level of investments committed by the industry can only increase.  Investments by a group of companies in local production demonstrate our faith in the future of the Russian pharmaceutical market.

 

In conclusion, I would like to point out that, despite the occasional difficulties, our industry is headed in the right direction.  For some of us this will be difficult to believe, but let us remember the issues we faced with the introduction of VAT, for example.  The point is that at the end of the day, we all enjoy and welcome the challenges we face as professionals in Russia.  And when I talk with my colleagues, we inevitably agree that there is something beyond description of words, which attracts us to Russia and its people. I am sure that most of us, if not all of us, would not wish to work any where else!

 

But the most important reason why we welcome the challenges we face is because of the positive impact which our work creates on society.  When we see that because of our work, patients who were previously untreated, or poorly treated, but who, after being given a chance, now have a sparkle in their eyes, a smile on their face and hope in their hearts for their future and their families, then all of the challenges transform themselves into a supreme sense of satisfaction that we have made a difference.  And when we remember of the many more patients, who are still waiting for modern therapies so that their lives may change for the better, then frustrations change into resolve, and fatigue into strength, so that we can go forward towards making patients lives healthier and better.

 

And no one can take that away from us!

 

Happy anniversary!!!!