MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 9, RIA NOVOSTI - President Putin believes that the government should render Russian pharmaceutical companies direct support in promoting their products to foreign markets. "It is just the case when the state should step in. It is just the case when the state should make use of its monopoly not for imposing sway on pharmaceuticals but for enabling Russian innovations centres to promote their high-technology output," Putin said when speaking Monday at the session of the presidential Council on science and high technologies. He admitted however that the promotion of medicine was indeed a very painstaking job, even with highly competitive products.
According to certain estimates, the profit rate in the pharmaceutical business is even higher than in narcotics trade. Putin also mentioned the international mob functioning in this sector, which has put on quite a respectable garb but allows operations only according to its own rules.
