FAS HELD MEETING OF BRICS+ WORKING GROUP ON RESEARCH OF COMPETITION ISSUES IN PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETS

Its co-chairs are the FAS Russia and the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People's Republic of China (SAMR)

Developing and protecting competition in pharmaceutical markets is one of the key issues in the work of antimonopoly agencies of Russia and other countries, said Timofey Nizhegorodtsev, Deputy Head of FAS Russia and moderator of the meeting.

Huang Yuwei, expert of the Department of Antimonopoly Law Enforcement of the SAMR, made a report at the meeting of the Working Group. The speaker told about changes in China's antimonopoly legislation, as well as about the regulation of intellectual property in the context of pharmaceutical markets.

Samir Kulkarni, Professor of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, also took part in the meeting. The speaker noted that one of the most prospective pharmaceutical markets is currently the biosimilar market. In 2023, experts estimate the value of this market at about 44 trillion rubles (500 billion US dollars).

At the same time, according to Samir Kulkarni, the institution of competition in the markets of biological medicine is not respected. It means that antimonopoly agencies need to adapt their existing regulatory tools to ensure the availability of such medicines.

Competition authorities use various mechanisms to increase the availability of medicines, increase their production volumes, reduce their cost and prevent anti-competitive practices in the markets.

At the end of the meeting, an agreement was reached to expand cooperation between antimonopoly regulators and educational institutions to build knowledge and improve competencies in the field of biosimilar development.