Veronika Skvortsova Appointed Health Minister

Foreign and local drugmakers welcomed the appointment of Veronika Skvortsova as health minister, saying they expect her to bring a scientific approach to implementing the recent order by President Vladimir Putin to improve the health-care system over the next six years. Among the goals set by Putin for his six-year term in the Kremlin is to increase the average life expectancy, which currently stands at 69 years, by improving health-care policy, and increasing the share of domestically made strategic drugs the government purchases from slightly above 20 percent to 50 percent by 2020. Skvortsova will have to deal with drugmakers’ concerns over the prospects of the Russian market, as some of them said Tuesday that they would like to see Russia become a more predictable environment to invest in. Unlike China and India, which provide long-term investment opportunities, Russia is the emerging market of “short-term opportunities,” Adamyan of Janssen-Cilag said.  “Russia is a fully unpredictable environment, which makes … investors nervous,” she said, adding that the market also lacks transparency. “If we can manage these two things the right way, we may become one of the best places to invest.”



http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/drugmakers-have-high-hopes-for-health-minister/459027.html