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Pharm to Patient

TBY talks to Batyrbek Mashkeyev, General Manager & Owner of VIVA Pharm, on the local pharmaceuticals market.

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Kazakhstani pharmaceuticals market, and how have you positioned yourself in it? 
• The market here is 80% dependent on imports, with only 20% produced locally. All the major names are here, operating either through representatives or entities. Some multinationals have bought pharmaceutical factories, an example being a Polish company, Polpharma, which bought a factory in Shymkent. Turkish companies are active here in Kazakhstan, and there are two major ones, Nobel and Abdi Ibrahim. Nobel is based in Almaty and has a factory there.
   

• What has enabled you to maintain your strong position in the market?
•  We do marketing and dictribution that is able to compete with multinationals. We have project managers and medical representatives to coordinate our marketing efforts. We send our employees to Moscow for training with a staff of Russian officers. We keep up with trends and innovations that European or American companies are developing, and apply those here at VIVA Pharm.
   

• What role do you think the pharmaceuticals industry will play in the diversification of the economy over the next few decades?
• We can definitely make local generics; however, new technology is crucial, and in that sense European, US, Swiss, and UK companies are advanced in that way. It is impossible to be on the same level as them, but we can produce generics at a high level. If there is no patent, or if the patent has expired, we can manufacture here. Making generics is not easy either, but that is our aim.
   

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