OREANDA-NEWS  On 26 February was announced, that the production of substitutes for imported drug substances should be increased in Belarus, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky told media while visiting Nesvizh Medications Plant. A conference of heads of Belbiopharm enterprises is scheduled to take place at Nesvizh Medications Plant on February 25 to discuss the industry operation in the modern financial and economic conditions. Sergei Sidorsky remarked, Belbiopharm manufactures almost 590 medications, however, it lags behind in manufacturing drug substances. “Only 7-8% of the substances used in Belarus are homemade,” he said.

“The Government is dissatisfied with poor performance of our science in this area, primarily the National Academy of Sciences and institutes,” added the Prime Minister.

In his opinion, it is necessary to widely apply practices used by the Vitebsk biofactory. “While visiting the factory three years ago I gave an instruction for NASB institutes to work more actively on drug substances there,” said Sergei Sidorsky. “The project, which is being implemented in Vitebsk now, will allow the factory to get a manufacturing facility of its own, which will be able to replace 70% of the import”.

The conference of heads of Belbiopharm enterprises held on February 25 is supposed to discuss ways to minimise imports. “Import substitution is a top-priority task,” stressed the Prime Minister. He added Belarusian manufacturers should start producing as much drug substances as possible. “Certainly it is expensive and costly and may entail a lot of problems, but getting busy with it is important,” said Sergei Sidorsky. It is important for Belarusian scientists to start working on designing drug substances, believes the head of Government.

Nesvizh Pharmaceutical Plant intends to receive a certificate of conformity with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for its infusion solutions, Director of the plant Sergei Prosmytsky told reporters. “Having the GMP certificate we will be able to sell our products in the Baltic states and later in other other European countries,” Sergei Prosmytsky said. In his words, beginning 2004 the plant has been reconstructing the infusion solutions production facilities using Bottlepack technologies. The company received a Br22.8 billion loan from Belarusbank on the security of the government. In March 2008, the company commissioned the first production line of infusions in modern plastic packages with a capacity of 5 million bottles a year. The total capacity of the new production is 10 million bottles a year; it will be totally in compliance with GMP standards, the Director underlined.

He noted that Br11 billion was allocated to complete the reconstruction in line with the national programme to develop small and medium-sized towns. Br6 billion was used in 2008, the remainder will be utilized in 2009. A warehouse for ready products compliant with GMP standards will be constructed this year.

Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky underlined that Belarusian pharmaceutical companies are focused on the modernization of their production facilities using innovation technologies. One of the successful examples of these efforts is the reconstruction of the infusion solutions production line at Nesvizh Pharmaceutical Plant. In 2008 the enterprise produced 1 million bottles, in 2009 about 8 million bottles is to be manufactured. The new production will be certified in line with international standards. “It is a considerable advancement, a brand-new level of sales,” Sergei Sidorsky underlined.

Nesvizh Pharmaceutical Plant was founded in 1960. The company is the biggest producer of infusion sterile and injection solutions in Belarus. It produces 16 million bottles of 20 kinds of solutions a year. The products are exported to Russia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.