OREANDA-NEWS. May 13, 2011. Enterprises of the Belarusian pharmaceutical concern Belbiopharm plan to accomplish 16 major investment projects in the current five-year term, Belbiopharm President Mikhail Cherepok told media.

A draft Program of Belbiopharm’s development in 2011-2015 was discussed at a session of the Council of Ministers Presidium.

Mikhail Cherepok said that there were plans to spend over Br1.018 trillion on the investment projects. The money will come out of pockets of the enterprises and investors, said the source. No appropriations from the state budget are expected.

Mikhail Cherepok reminded that Belarusian pharmaceutical companies are supposed to reach quite ambitious goals within the next five years. By 2015 the share of Belarus-made medications on the home market is supposed to reach 50% in cost terms. Last year the figure stood at 23.4% while in natural terms the share of Belarus-made medications on the home market was 58.5%. It means that Belarusian enterprises manufacture less expensive medications, said Mikhail Cherepok. He remarked that in Q1 2011 the share of Belarusian medications on the home market reached 26.1% in cost terms. In 2010 the difference in prices for certain imported and domestic medications was 4.4 times.

In order to reach the set goals, Belbiopharm plans to increase and upgrade the manufacturing capacity of existing enterprises in the five-year term. There are plans to start manufacturing new medications in partnership with well-known world leaders. Belarusian enterprises will start manufacturing 47 shortlisted medications. Belarusian enterprises started producing the first generic medications in late 2010 and in 2011, said the official.

Belbiopharm plans to increase the number of medications it offers by over 210. Every enterprise has been tasked with producing specific new medications till 2015. These new medications will account for about 10-11% of the Belarusian market capacity, said Mikhail Cherepok. In his words, substituting imported medications is extremely important for Belarus. In 2010 Belarus imported USD 81 million worth of analogues of Belarus-made medications while the market capacity stood at USD 776 million.

Mikhail Cherepok added that at present Belarusian pharmaceutical companies are busy looking into operation conditions on the Customs Union market. In particular, the Customs Union opens up a promising market of 170 million people. At the same time Belarusian manufacturers should be ready to fight the competition from Russian and Kazakh pharmaceutical companies.