OREANDA-NEWS. On September 25, 2014 the FAS Training Center in Kazan hosted a meeting “Russian medicines - Toward interdisciplinary dialogue”, organized by the Federal Anti-monopoly Service, the Healthcare Ministry of Tatarstan and the Association of the Russian pharmaceutical manufactures (ARPM).

Representatives of the FAS, state customers and pharmaceuticals market leaders gathered to discuss some of the most important aspects of applying the new public procurement legislation, to work out mutually acceptable solutions and to identify additional issues requiring further dialogues and regulatory changes.

Maria Borzova, Manager of VEGAS LEX Life Sciences Projects, spoke at the session “Combining state customer and consumer interests under FZ-44. Regulatory enforcement practice. Professional community's opinion” about the FAS and court practices in applying the law in the sphere of public procurement of pharmaceuticals used in 2014.

She discussed the criteria that the FAS and the courts apply to identify generic substitutes for pharmaceuticals, requirements to select a local medicine to apply procurement preferences, the content of state contracts and auction documentation and other trends in the regulatory enforcement practice in the pharmaceuticals procurement sector. The VEGAS LEX expert also drew the audience's attention to the specifics of applying the regulation for including bidders in the list of mala fide suppliers effective since the new law came into force, and pointed out common mistakes made in procurement documentation.

The event evoked active response from the participants, including representatives of federal and regional regulatory bodies, manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, representatives of professional and public associations, regional agencies (committees) on public procurement and others.