Putin: Up to 90% of Russia's pharmaceuticals to be home-made by 2018

OSCOW, Sept. 8 — Russia needs to produce up to 90 percent of its own pharmaceuticals by 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.

The Russian president noted that the pharmaceuticals are a high income business and called for investments to develop the country’s pharmaceutical industry.

“I should inform you, or remind you, that we plan to reach a level in pharmaceuticals so that by 2018 approximately 90 percent of medications used in Russia are localized in the Russian Federation,” Putin said during an All-Russian People’s Front forum on health issues.

Putin emphasized that “bringing in substances and then mixing them does not mean producing medicines here.”Moscow has launched a cross-sector import substitution program in the wake of the anti-Russia sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union and other states accusing Russia of involvement in the Ukrainian internal conflict, a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. (PNA/Sputnik)

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