Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) in the first half of the year ranked fifth in the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan, the company’s share was 2.3%.
Anton Zubov, the director of marketing and sales to the CIS countries of Farmak, told Interfax-Ukraine that in January-June 2021 the company increased sales in the Uzbek market by 61% in monetary terms compared to the same period in 2020.
“Our growth would have been even higher, however, during the pandemic, we were forced to limit the export of enoxaparin sodium (included in the COVID-19 treatment protocols) in favor of meeting the needs of the Ukrainian patient as a matter of priority,” he said.
According to Zubov, Uzbekistan is a key country in the company’s export sales. In the structure of shipments of Farmak products to the CIS countries, it occupies 50%.
Speaking about the main drivers of market development, Zubov noted the focus on the purchase of vaccines and the rapid growth of COVID-associated drugs, mainly antibiotics and anticoagulants.
“It was the increase in the consumption of these drugs that led to such a significant increase in the market this year,” he said.
Zubov stressed that export is a strategic direction for Farmak, and Uzbekistan ranks first in its overall structure.
“According to the export assessment data for the first half of 2021, Farmak is the undisputed leader among Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies supplying their products to the CIS countries. Our share is 32%, which is more than twice the share of our closest competitor. The growth for the same period in relation to the previous year amounted to 23%, this year – 9%. The market share increased by 1.4 percentage points,” he said.
Zubov said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the first place was taken by the Flenox drug, which is used to treat and prevent blood clots.
In addition, the endocrinological portfolio of the company, with the key drug Dialipon, is also in demand.
The company also notes a consistently high demand for the antiviral group, in particular, for the Amizon drug and the Picolax laxative drug.
At the same time, Zubov noted that, like many countries of the CIS region, Uzbekistan is trying to protect the interests of domestic producers.
“We see that Belarus is moving this way, introducing strict quotas on imported goods and restricting imports on pharmacy shelves. In Kazakhstan, for example, there is a “third is a crowd” rule, when, if there are two offers from local producers, the third offer from the importer is automatically withdrawn. Uzbekistan also actively defends the interests of its manufacturers. Assessing the obvious trends, our company plans to localize production of solid dosage forms in the territory of this country,” he said.
According to Zubov, at present, Farmak is actively developing a project to localize production in Uzbekistan on the basis of a pharmaceutical cluster, which is being built near Tashkent.
“Farmak has already declared its intentions to be localized in Uzbekistan. At the moment, we are actively negotiating with the directorate of the pharmaceutical cluster and are now at the stage of negotiating an investment agreement, “he said.
Zubov recalled that the declared volume of investments is $ 10 million, but “already now we see that, in fact, the amount of investment is likely to exceed the originally planned one.”
“Good equipment and specialists are expensive,” he explained.
Zubov said that traditionally the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan is the fourth largest in the CIS. According to IQVIA, its volume in 2020 amounted to $ 1.3 billion against $ 1.6 billion in Kazakhstan, but Uzbekistan is developing more dynamically and may take third place in 2022.
In January-June 2021, the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan grew by 75% in monetary terms (in U.S. dollars) and by 45% in natural terms (in the number of packages).
Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) was the first among Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies to implement the SAP SuccessFactors system to automate the most important and time-consuming processes in the field of personnel management, and is introducing a new module – SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting.
According to a press release from the company, the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting module will cover and automate the entire recruiting process – from sending applications to find a person to starting a job.
In addition, the module makes it possible to analyze the work of recruiters using HR performance metrics.
“HR specialists will be able to work more efficiently with resume databases, keep records of internal and external candidates, form groups of the most relevant applicants according to the application for recruiting and save the results of interviews,” the company says.
According to Viktoria Kondrashikhina, the HR director of Farmak, this approach will significantly reduce labor costs for finding specialists and accelerate the filling of vacancies.
“Actively digitalizing its business, Farmak pays great attention to the automation of HR processes. For three years now, we have been using the SAP SuccessFactors module, which has transferred to online the setting, cascading and coordination of goals, annual assessment of corporate and managerial competencies, the formation of individual development plans, and personnel reserve. Last year, we began to introduce a module that automates staff training. This will simplify and accelerate the process of acquiring new knowledge and move from paper to digital data management. And also to develop e-learning with elements of gamification, making learning more flexible and effective. Now we are introducing recruiting automation for even greater efficiency and freeing up the time of HR specialists for other strategic tasks,” she said.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. The company’s product portfolio includes more than 220 complex-component modern medicines. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs.
Pharmaceutical company Farmak (Kyiv) will set up a representative office in Vietnam.
As the company said in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, such a decision was made by its supervisory board on August 19 in order to carry out economic activities in Vietnam.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. The company’s product portfolio includes about 200 brands. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs.
The company annually reinvests up to 90% of its profits in development. In total, more than $310 million have been invested in the modernization of production since 1995. Annual investments in research and development are approximately $15 million.
Over 2020, Farmak increased its net profit by 7.8% compared to 2019, to UAH 1.138 billion, and sales income reached UAH 7.5 billion.
The export share increased to 29.6% in total sales. Export deliveries increased by 40% over the year. The company exports its products to more than 25 countries around the world.
Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) is investing EUR 30 million in the construction of an innovative research R&D center in Kyiv.
According to a press release from the company, the center is to open in 2023.
According to Executive Director of Farmak Volodymyr Kostiuk, the decision to build an R&D center was made a few years ago due to the expansion of the geography of presence and the portfolio of medicines.
In the new center, in particular, analytical laboratories will be concentrated, they will have about a hundred liquid and gas chromatographs and a number of modern devices for the development and testing of drugs.
In addition, the R&D center will house a technological laboratory with equipment for the development of finished drugs with various methods of their delivery to the human body and the implementation of personalized medicine protocols of the 21st century.
In the new R&D center, it is planned to continue working in three main areas: finished dosage forms, proprietary active pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as an innovative area in which Farmak has been working since 2015 – biotechnological active pharmaceutical ingredients. All processes will be digitized.
In addition, on the basis of the new complex, a special location will be equipped for young scientists who are not employees of the company, where they can engage in scientific activities and create prototypes of drugs.
The concept design of the complex was developed by Makhno Studio.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. The company’s product portfolio includes about 200 brands. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs.
JSC Farmak pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) has launched the project “Electronic dossier of a series of medicinal products,” upon completion of which paper-based records of information on the production of a series of medicines will be completely replaced by electronic ones. According to the company’s press release, the project partner was Siemens, which introduced similar systems for the pharmaceutical companies Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda, etc.
The electronic dossier of a drug batch includes all the necessary protocols: from quality control of raw materials to information on all stages and parameters recorded during the manufacture of the drug.
The company clarifies that the introduction of an electronic dossier minimizes the risk of operator error, optimizes the technological process and allows real-time monitoring of the situation at the site, and also provides complete statistics for calculating the overall efficiency of the equipment
In addition, the electronic dossier allows an authorized person to analyze online all indicators of the drug for deviations and release a batch of the drug remotely, from anywhere in the world.
“Digitalization is a requirement of our time. As every citizen of Ukraine has an electronic passport, so each series of drugs should have its own electronic dossier. We are interested in the deep processes of digitalization, so we introduce electronic quality certificates, electronic research protocols, electronic dossiers of drug series and much more,” Executive Director of JSC Farmak Volodymyr Kostiuk said.
Farmak is the leader of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market, produces medicines in all 14 therapeutic groups. Among the main directions are endocrinological, gastroenterological, cardiological, neurological, anti-cold and other drugs. Annually it introduces to the market about 20 new complex component modern drugs. Currently, the company’s product portfolio includes about 400 drugs.
Post-COVID rehabilitation is necessary for patients even at the time of stay in a medical facility, and 20-40% of patients who have recovered will suffer from post-COVID syndrome, a number of experts voiced this opinion during a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. “Out of 100% of people who are sick with COVID-19, some 20% need hospitalization. Some of these patients need hospitalization in intensive care units, as well as mechanical ventilation. Rehabilitation for such patients is necessary even in the intensive care unit, especially for patients with artificial lung ventilation. Rehabilitation is also important for patients who move from the intensive care unit to the hospital,” Vadym Kerestey, the head of the rehabilitation department of the Adonis network of medical clinics, said.
At the same time, the expert emphasized that currently in Ukraine, very few rehabilitation measures are carried out in intensive care units, and rehabilitation centers do not cover all needs.
He noted that the majority of patients who had been ill in a mild form also need post-COVID rehabilitation, since patients have impairments from different systems. Patients often have tachycardia, lung problems, reduced ability to work, acute disorders of cerebral circulation, thrombosis, which increases the risk of strokes, disorders of the nervous system.
In addition, the country also has a demand for post-COVID rehabilitation among foreigners, the expert emphasized.
Physical therapy is especially important, he said.
“Physical therapy will accelerate the recovery of patients. Physical therapists teach patients to move, breathe correctly, determine the physical condition and the body’s ability to exercise,” Kerestey said.
The head of the department of inflammatory eye pathologies and microsurgical treatment of their consequences of the Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Oleksandra Zborovska, in turn, noted that patients after coronavirus also need to undergo rehabilitation with ophthalmologists.
“From the point of view of an ophthalmologist, everyone needs rehabilitation, even those who were not sick, since we were all on isolation, which significantly increased the time of contact with gadgets. There is evidence that an increase in myopia in children is recorded. Therefore, visual hygiene and a dosage visual load regimen are of great importance. Regarding post-COVID rehabilitation, patients come with different complaints and need to be observed by a doctor,” she said.
At the same time, Vitaliy Usenko, the medical adviser to Farmak, noted that, according to the latest data, 20-40% of patients who have recovered will suffer from post-COVID syndrome.
“Post-COVID syndrome has been included in the international classifier of diseases. The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has signed an order with a protocol for rehabilitation care for patients with coronavirus disease. It is impossible to implement the protocol with the help of one health system, and it is very good that rehabilitation services appear,” he added.
According to Usenko, during post-COVID rehabilitation, drugs that are used in the treatment of COVID-19 can be used, but only as directed by a doctor.
FARMAK, FILATOV INSTITUTE, KERESTEY, REHABILITATION, USENKO, ZBOROVSKA, АДОНИС
