ANDREY TSARIKOVSKIY: PEOPLE’S INTERESTS ARE THE PRIMACY OF OUR WORK

Regulators and business held a dialogue on the challenges in the pharmaceutical industry in BRICS economies at St Petersburg International Economic Forum

On 6 June 2019, St Petersburg International Economic Forum included a session “A substantive dialogue between global pharmaceutical players and BRICS economies on the rules of fair and equitable competition”.

According to Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy, the agro-industrial complex and pharmaceuticals are the most essential industry sectors all over the world, without which the mankind cannot survive.

“One cannot live without food and medicines. And we will not be able to do anything if we do not work on the problems together with BRICS countries”, started his speech Andrey Tsarikovskiy. “Why BRICS? Because the consolidated markets of these countries is half of the world population. We have to come up with common rules of the game on this market. We understand that each country has its specifics and national traditions but if the rules of the game are common for all, it will be easier for the pharmaceutical companies to operate, it will be easier for regulators to regulate and consumers will get lower prices for medicinal drugs and some other benefits”.

Deputy Head of FAS described Russian experience of “putting things to order in drug supplies to the population and a transition to more understandable and clear-cut rules of the game”.

He said: “There has been a price shift: the classical cost method had long died and we moved to a comparative analysis, which is much more efficient.  Changes also occurred in intellectual property rights and forced licensing. We think that intellectual property rights should be regulated by the antimonopoly law like other assets. It is strange not to regulate intellectual property rights that cost billions”.

Regarding forced licensing, the speaker stated that in view of the owners of the pharmaceutical companies, forced alienation of intellectual property rights will have an adverse effect upon business.

“Certainly, companies cannot like when somebody can use the results of their efforts. People’s interests should be on the first place, however, and we must make the decisions that serve them. Of course, the alienation mechanisms should be fair and apply only in the extreme cases, when it is not possible otherwise because human lives cannot depend on the will of a single person”, emphasized Deputy Head of FAS.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy also stressed that pharmaceutical cartels are another “big issue in the industry” and pointed out at the need to exchange information between regulators to counter these economic violations.

He summed up: “Our main objective is to reach standardization of our actions in BRICS economies and a mutual dialogue between all market players – regulators and pharmaceutical companies”.

“An opinion exists that forced licensing will kill innovations, which is not true, quite the opposite. BRICS experience shows that forced licensing only encourages innovative developments in the pharmaceutical sector. And we should take this experience into account”, informed Director of the Institute and Law and development, Higher School of Economics – Skolkovo, Alexei Ivanov. “Unfortunately we ourselves limit our opportunities in Russia today”.