MINSK, 21 March (BelTA) – The Belarusian pharmaceutical company Belmedpreparaty intends to set up an innovative enterprise to make insulin in cartridges, BelTA learned from Yelena Litvinova, Head of Belmedpreparaty's Innovative Development Office.
According to the source, the business plan is being developed and going through the approval process. “No enterprise can be established on the spur of the moment since it is a costly process. This is why it is necessary to calculate economic parameters first and find out how soon the company will be able to recoup the costs,” said Yelena Litvinova.
In 2016 Belmedpreparaty and Novo Nordisk Company teamed up to make Belarus' first insulin in cartridges. “For now the cartridges with insulin are made by Novo Nordisk Company while Belmedpreparaty takes care of packaging. In the future we intend to set up a full-cycle manufacturing process,” explained Yelena Litvinova.
At present Belmedpreparaty makes about 350 medication titles. Every year the company comes up with at least 15 new kinds of medications including original and generic ones. Yelena Litvinova said she believes that generic medications should not be underestimated. “Developing and starting the production of generic medications is not a simple task. It takes at least two years depending on the medication form to start making a generic drug. Only after a full set of pharmaceutical and pharmacological tests a generic drug can pass state registration and the company can make it and sell it,” added Yelena Litvinova.
Apart from that, Belmedpreparaty has started developing medications as transdermal therapeutic systems (soft products in the form of adhesive bandages or films). It is quite a complicated process since a number of tests have to be done before a product is accepted for manufacturing. “Unfortunately, there are no companies able to offer a full set of preclinical trials in Belarus for now. This is why the company is on the lookout for preclinical trial services abroad,” said the executive.
Apart from new medications Belmedpreparaty looks into new manufacturing technologies. For instance, these days Belmedpreparaty makes antitumor medications in enclosed plants to rule out the influence of the human factor and possible environmental factors. There are also plans to come up with isolating technologies to make peroral forms of cytostatic drugs.
