The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to complete the Pharma-2020 program ahead of schedule

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has proposed to terminate the federal targeted program (FTP) "Pharma-2020" ahead of schedule. It will be merged with the state program "Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry," and the budget of the latter is proposed to be reduced by 6 billion rubles as a result.

The corresponding draft resolution of the Russian Government has been posted on the federal portal for draft regulatory legal acts.

Experts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade note in the explanatory memorandum that the changes to the structure and timelines of the two state programs are being made "due to the specifics of the distribution of funds allocated within the federal budget for 2017-2019." The ministry now believes that state support for the pharmaceutical and medical industry should be provided under a single program – "Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry" for 2013–2020.

"All obligations to finance companies under the federal targeted program 'Pharma-2020' will be fulfilled; this is about the technical transfer of activities provided for by the FTP to the state program," says Oleg Korzinov, Executive Director of the Northern Biopharmaceutical Cluster.

In particular, unfinished state contracts of residents of the Northern Cluster will be transferred to the state program: the KhimRar Center for High Technologies, the Pharmzashchita Research and Production Center, and MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology), Korzinov added. "All new activities for project financing will be implemented within the framework of the state program," he explained.

However, as a result of the merger with "Pharma-2020," the state program will not be increased but, on the contrary, reduced. In 2016, it is proposed to cut the program by 6 billion, in 2017 – by 3 billion, and in 2018 – by another 3 billion. But in 2019, funding for the state program will increase, as proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, by 6 billion rubles. In total, a reduction of 6 billion rubles is planned (compared to the version dated December 30, 2015).

"Formally, the federal targeted program has been incorporated into the state program. Roughly speaking, the old version of the program has been updated to today's realities. In the initial version of the program, the main emphasis was on funding R&D, but now the focus is shifting to completing these developments and subsidizing already operating enterprises or those who will start supplying finished products to the market within the next two years. The availability of such subsidies will be a decisive factor for many in deciding to build a plant or modernize existing production of medical products," Alexander Ruchkin, president of the ZdravoMedTekh association, explained to a Vademecum correspondent.

The public discussion of the new version of the state program "Development of the Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry" will last until February 6, 2017. Over five years, the government invested about 50 billion rubles in the implementation of the FTP "Pharma-2020," Yuri Kalinin, president of the Union of Associations and Enterprises of the Medical Industry "Rosmedprom," noted earlier.

The federal budget for 2017-2019 was adopted by the State Duma in the third reading on December 9. Experts reported that healthcare funding, in prices accounting for inflation, would be cut by 2.3% (compared to 2016, and by 41% compared to 2013).