OREANDA-NEWS. April 27, 2009. CV PROTEK comes up with proposals to improve the situation in the pharmaceutical industry.
CV PROTEK, a pharmaceutical distributor, participated in the session of the working group of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Commerce on February 2, which discussed the issues of monitoring the strategic enterprises of industry and commerce. They discussed measures to enhance the sustainability of the pharmaceutical industry during the session.

Andrey Gusev, Deputy General Director at CV PROTEK, spoke about the situation on the Russian pharmaceutical market, drug prices, and measures taken by the Company in order to stabilize the industry. They also discussed proposals to support the Russian pharmaceutical enterprises.

They outlined changes in the ruble’s exchange rate against other currencies as the main problem that worries the distributors today, which leads to increased drug prices. The participants discussed measures taken by PROTEK with the view to lessen the dependency on the exchange rate fluctuations. For that matter, the distributor signed contracts with a number of foreign producers in national currency since the beginning of the year, whereby the prices for medications are set in rubles. In addition to that, the Company believes that the currently discussed measures to reduce the tax burden and customs fees for imported medications are quite timely.

The participants also brought up the issue of the banks’ lending policy and current growth of loan interest, which adversely affect the market participants. The parties came up with the counter proposals regarding flexible lending terms for strategic enterprises.

They discussed during the session the current situation at PROTEK, the Company’s performance indicators, and issues of the personnel retaining policies. They noted that the Company has good financial staying power, which fact is supported by fulfillment of obligations to their partners. In addition to that, since the beginning of the year PROTEK has been implementing various marketing programs for its partners, which help to maintain the current sales level and secure timely payments.

At the end of the session, they determined the proposals to be considered by the working group for further inclusion on the list of measures to support the Russian pharmaceutical industry and stabilize the financial situation.

CV PROTEK is a nationwide distributor of health and beauty products, which operates in all the 83 constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The regional network is made of 37 branches, 34 regional trade representative offices, and 26 depot warehouses. The total warehouse area amounts to about 176,000 sq m. CV PROTEK was included in the list of Russia’s strategic pharmaceutical enterprises approved by the governmental commission of the Russian Federation.