On May 29, Astana hosted the international forum “Lessons of the pandemic: the experience of Kazakhstan”, the main organizer of which was the National Holding “QazBioPharm” JSC.
The main goal of the forum is to preserve the institutional memory of measures to comprehensively overcome pandemic threats using the example of COVID-19 coronavirus infections, to popularize the effective activities of state and other bodies and scientific organizations in ensuring biological safety during a pandemic.
The program announced the participation of the first heads of a number of state bodies, deputies of Parliament, representatives of international organizations, leading scientists, prominent public figures and business representatives.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Altai Kulginov, Chairman of the Committee for Social and Cultural Development of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Askhat Aimagambetov, Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sayasat Nurbek, Deputy of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan Akmaral Alnazarova delivered a welcoming speech at the forum.
During the event, speakers and participants discussed the experience of Kazakhstan in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, mechanisms and strategies in the prevention and prediction of biological threats, advanced technologies for the development of new drugs and agents against COVID-19 to ensure biological safety.
One of the first speakers of the event was the Minister of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Azhar Giniyat, who made a presentation on “Response measures to COVID-19 taken in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The lessons of the pandemic.
The global pandemic has shown that the most important thing under any circumstances is a prompt response and the clear adoption of specific measures. For example, since the beginning of the epidemic, the Republican and operational headquarters have been established under the Ministry of Health and at the akimats of the regions, the cities of Almaty, Astana, Shymkent, which daily coordinated the work of medical organizations to combat coronavirus infection.
In addition, from the first days of the announcement of the pandemic in Kazakhstan, an interdepartmental commission was created, which made decisions on the protection and protection of public health from COVID-19, the interaction of state bodies, strengthening the infrastructure of medical organizations, the purchase of medicines, immunobiological preparations, medical products and equipment. appointment, personal protective equipment, strengthening and weakening of restrictive measures, taking into account the epidemiological situation in the country and in the world.
The head of the Single Distributor, Erkhat Iskaliyev, also took part as a speaker of the event with the report “Conclusions of the pandemic: Formation of own production to ensure the drug safety of the country”.
A single distributor, as an operator for the purchase and delivery of medicines within the framework of free drug provision for the whole country, played an important role during the pandemic in Kazakhstan. Providing the population with the necessary drugs, systematic work was carried out to improve work and increase efficiency.
The main lesson of the pandemic was the formation of its own production, which ensures drug safety and stability in the country. This was emphasized by the Head of State, instructing to increase the share of domestically produced medicines in the domestic market to 50% by 2025.
The measure of support in the pharmaceutical industry is provided in the form of long-term contracts. To date, there are 99 such long-term contracts concluded between 36 domestic producers and the Single Distributor for the supply of more than 4.6 thousand types of medicines and medical devices.
Localization of original drugs, the creation of R&D centers and the conclusion of contracts for innovative drugs are also effective tools for increasing the share of domestic production. In this case, it is expedient to attract global BigPharma players to the Kazakhstani market.
A single distributor is actively working on the issues of localization / contract manufacturing with major global manufacturers. Leading companies such as Canon, Philips, General Electric, Samsung Medison, Mindray and others have expressed interest in localizing production.
Over the past two years, a number of agreements have been signed: between Roche Holding and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Novo Nordisk and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Pfizer and JSC NC Kazakh Invest, AstraZeneca UK limited and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, South Korean companies and domestic manufacturers.
During his speech, Erkhat Serikovich dwelled on the development of the country's cluster initiative. By order of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan, medical and pharmaceutical clusters will appear in the cities of Astana, Aktobe and Shymkent, due to the concentration of production sites and medical universities. Currently, work is underway to develop and approve road maps.
The warehouse logistics of the Single Distributor did not go unnoticed either. The logistics system is built in such a way that the volumes of medicines and medical devices are distributed from 4 distribution HUBs to operational warehouses in the regions. HUBs are designed to receive a large volume of goods and store from 2 to 6 monthly needs for the regions.
During the pandemic, having identified the weaknesses of the system, the company's logistics processes were modernized and the logistics of medicines were improved. Thus, the logistics format has changed from static to dynamic.
The effects of this innovation were the operation of the warehouse in 24/7 mode through the formation of duty groups, the distribution of goods from the HUB to the regions on the principle of cross-docking, and an increase in the number of scheduled flights by 1.7 times. An agreement was reached with airlines to speed up the delivery of drugs and the Kazlogistics Union, in case of an increase in refrigerated trucks.
In total, about 10 speakers spoke at the forum, who voiced a number of topics: the Kazakh model of combating COVID-19, coronavirus in the United States: countermeasures and ways of stabilization, experience in applying evidence-based approaches to patient management during a pandemic, and others.
After all the presentations, the Forum's resolution was adopted and priority areas were identified for preventing biological risks in modern conditions.
The forum also featured a photo exhibition “The History of QazVac Creation”, an exhibition of scientific achievements of subsidiaries of the QazBioPharm Holding and projects of business structures sponsoring the event.
At the end of the event, the participants of the dialogue platform voiced their readiness to take concrete steps to develop the industry within their competence, noting that such meetings play an important role in making certain management decisions and achieving national goals.
Reference:
In his Address to the people of Kazakhstan "The unity of the people and systemic reforms are a solid foundation for the country's prosperity" on September 1, 2021, the Head of State K. Tokayev noted the need to create a national system for predicting the country's biological safety and developing domestic biopharmaceutics.
In this regard, on December 20, 2021, by the Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the QazBioPharm National Holding Joint-Stock Company was established with a 100% state participation in the authorized capital.
QazBioPharm National Holding JSC was established in order to ensure biological safety, sustainable development and improvement of the infrastructure of the biopharmaceutical market, stimulate the development of biopharmaceutical science and industry, as well as meet the needs of the state and society in biopharmaceutical products.
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