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Kazakhstan’s pharmaceutical company “VIVA PHARM” LLP, founded in 1997, is among the top ten largest pharmaceutical distributions of RK. The company achieved a significant progress due to its clear strategy of development and high professionalism of the staff. Today, the company can rightly be called the centre of the introduction of drugs to the market of Kazakhstan, because over the years of its existence Viva Pharm developed four major types of activities. About successful launch in the company’s history and about its structure, we were told by the general director Batyrbek Mashkeyev. 

- Tell us about the main activities of your company? 

- The company was designed with the aim of promoting, introduction and distribution of new medications to the market of Kazakhstan. As one of the brightest launches in the history of Viva Pharm I can name the work with the product of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in oncology, HIV/AIDS and cardiology in particular with the medication Monopril. These high quality drugs were included in the public ambulatory drug supply, and due to this, the drug became available for patients. Patients received Monopril with 50% of reimbursement. Later in OTC (OTC segment of the market) we derived Fervex to the leading positions of Cough medicines and our Upsarin became the best selling aspirin in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Our rich experience in promoting medicines interested American company Abbott, and we signed an exclusive contract. For many years we successfully have implemented medicines of this firm. And the most successful proof of our cooperation, again due to the knowledge and skills of the team, became Heptral, which entered the top ten best-selling drugs in Kazakhstan. 

- How is the selection of products and direction, with which you want to work, conducted?

- We follow the global trends, novelties, which drugs and medical products are widely used and improve Patients’ quality of life. Here is an example of medical products. I once saw in Europe, and I know that it also exists in Baltic countries. Expenses for acquisition and use of devices for ostomy patients, namely Colostomies, are covered by the government. We started to search for European manufacturers of such products, and found the company Convatec, with which we were able to negotiate. We brought a product to the market, registered and presented at the regional level for procurement for outpatients. As the result, the Ministry of Health Care took a decision to purchase this product for oncology patients. Simply speaking, found the product in Europe, registered, brought and delivered it to the patient.

- What are the other good examples to market drugs in the history of the company? 

- We cooperate with the company Delta Medicel Ukraine – leader in implementation drugs to the market of CIS and responsible for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Today, we successfully represent through Delta Medicel manufacturers such as Mentholatum, URGO, UPSA, Molteni, Vitabiotics, Biogay. One of the brightest examples is the partnership with the company Genzyme Corporation (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), which is the leader in new developments, based on latest achievements of biotechnology. These achievements have successfully introduced the company in the therapy, genetic diagnosis, stem cell therapy for tissue replacement, as well as biosurgery and Biotechnology. The basic strategy of the company is to develop technologies and medical products, designed for the treatment of relatively rare genetic diseases, particularly lysosomal storage diseases. Key concepts in this segment are rare disease and orphan-drug,

- What does the rare disease mean?

- This is the disease, occurring with some frequency, life-threatening or chronic progressing disease, which without treatment leads to death or disability of the patient. The threshold for inclusion in a rare disease differs in various countries and ranges from 1:1500 to 1:2500 of the population. Probably they have affected 6-8% of the world population of people. The paradox of scarcity is in the fact that although the disease is rare, patients with rare diseases are numerous. Use of these drugs gives the opportunity to patients to live this life, to be socially active and generate income to the government.

We could sign the agreement with the company Genzyme to conduct pre-registration work to find patients, registered these drugs in the Ministry of Healthcare, and currently working on, so that these drugs were in the program for outpatient drug provision. Currently at the regional level this product is bought, but not always in necessary volume.

- What is the difference between your company and others?

- The priority of our company is that in our structure we have departments, such as: deduction to the market and registration, promoting and marketing, customs store and distribution, production of medical products. In my opinion, the success is in clear interrelation of all departments. A strong point of our company is the clear distribution of liabilities and responsibilities among different departments. I will slightly illustrate, what I say.

It all starts with Business development Projects Manager – he is the Marketing Analyst, his main task is – management of projects on market research, its trends and identifying opportunities for further development of the business. His responsibilities include: organization of work on preparation and alignment of agreements with partners, conducting negotiations with potential partners, project management, connected with involvement in the company’s portfolio of products for sales. The main qualities of this manager – are the skills of analysis and forecasting. His responsibilities include development of plans of commercialization of information programs, including positioning of the product, pricing, and reimbursement of expenses, premarketing and plans to launch, determining of product life cycle, based on market research and analysis. As soon as reached agreements on implementing, concluded an agreement on registration of this drug in Kazakhstan.

At this stage, comes our Department of Regulatory Support, where works five professional managers. At the same time they lead approximately 80 drugs. We have thank you letters from most of the companies for quality and operational work, this is the successful case. It should be noted, that there was no any successful work without professionalism of the employees of National Centre of examination of medicines. Department of regulatory support executes state registration of medical products, medical devices, medical equipment, Supplements in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan. In addition, the department provides regulatory support to the Department of Commerce and logistics at import and export of the product, for compliance with local health care products requirements of the legislation in the field of pharmacy. Also this department is responsible for pharmacovigilance monitoring of drug side effects. And consults the staff our companion questions of normative base, regulating handing of medicines. 

The director of our Department of regulatory support has his own catch phrase: “Marketing starts from the registration” and as you guessed, next department I will tel you about is the Department of Marketing. Our distinctive side from the other distribution companies is the professional team of marketing, containing of 40 people. While working we are guided by one of the golden principles of marketing by Lester Woonderman, and for us “hero” of the marketing is the Client, but not the Product. All the work of employees of the marketing department has one goal – ensure growth in sales and cost optimization for profit.

Liabilities of Department of Marketing include: 

Analysis of market and competitive environment

Analysis and portfolio management of the company

Development of Marketing Complex (5P) 

Creating, control and realization of marketing plans

Creating of corporate ideology in relation to the product (Branding) 

Long and medium-term analysis and contingency planning 

Software sales

In the next step of launch products comes Department of Commerce and distribution on efficiency and clarity of which depends the delivery of our products to the public purchaser SK Pharmacy, to the medical institution, to the pharmacy. 

Work of Sales Department – is: 

Ensuring the availability of the drug in all regions, where Viva Pharm works; 

Work on creating and supporting of necessary and an adequate supply of commodities; 

Supply planning and production.

I should note that from the work of this group depend many things. For example, in recent years, the number of drugs, which needs special temperature schedule during the transportation, storage and handling, grows in the world. Most of them consist of biological drugs, the storage of which requires fairly narrow range of +2 to +8 degrees. The currently used vaccines require strict adherence to certain temperature at transportation and storage, breach of which leads to partial or complete loss of vaccines immunogenic, naturally affecting the effectiveness of immunization and undermining public confidence in vaccination. From the influence of the environment depends as the efficiency, so the product safety for consumers. Therefore, the requirements on temperature regime are performed by us flawlessly at the stage of transportation and storage. We have got specially trained personnel, refrigeration equipment, and mechanism for monitoring compliance with the required temperature conditions. 

And so we have reached characterization of work mechanisms of our Customs Store, acting on the basis of the license (# 0000026 dated 06.05.2006)

There are guarded car parking in the territory of the warehouse, and convenient access to the warehouse for a large capacity road transport with circular bypass roads, allowing importing goods, bypassing urban transport interchanges. LLP Viva Pharm has the status of the company of minimal risk at Customs operations, which has been assigned by the Department of Customs Control of Almaty city. 

Customs regime, designed for storage under customs control of imported goods in special premises and places, having the status of customs warehouse, allows without Customs, taxes and without non-tariff regulation, except for requirements regarding product safety to have a full range of products while saving money collected in customs clearance of goods. 

Customs warehouse covers an area of 1.000 sq m; 

Warehouses are closed and heated; 

Providing simultaneous storage of 800 pallets; 

Warehouse is equipped with forced ventilation, air conditioning system, supporting climate control; 

Temperature control in the warehouse is conducted by elektrotermigigrograf; 

For protecting against flying insects there are set an electric trap, working day and night; 

Lift of cargo to the racks is carried out by reach trucks; 

On a warehouse cargo is transported by carts for pallets; 

The unloading and loading of the goods to the motor transport is carried out by an electric Forklift. 

There developed a computer system that allows placing goods in cells. 

Customs store has the refrigerator compartment with the area of 27 m2 that provides simultaneous storage of 20 pallets. 

Refrigerator compartment is equipped by devices, supporting temperature regime in the range from 2 to 8 degrees. Monitoring of the temperature is conducted by elektrotermogigraf, data of which is coming to a computer. That gives an opportunity to control temperature regime inside it, even not entering into the refrigerator compartment. 

There works qualified employees of the company, who have a great experience in Customs activity. 

Employees of the warehouse trained standard GDP (Proper distribution practice)

Our Customs Warehouse provides the following services:

- Customs clearance; 

- Storage of cargo under Customs control, including refrigerator compartment;

- Preparation of documents for customs clearance; 

- Re-exports customs clearance 

- Transportation of goods in the city of Almaty, in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia.

-Tell us about your project on production of medical products?

- In accordance with the task of the head of our state, we have started realization of our own production of firm dosage form tablets and capsules by the project of Ukraine Company Pharmengineer. Today it is experimental-industrial area, made by the requirements of standards GMP, complete cycle of production, clean rooms, system of air and water purification. We are currently going through a product registration of the first stage. 

- At the same time we have free area for development of production, and ready to consider projects on joint-production, and transfer of technology.