The ranking of best R&D departments of Ukrainian companies and their heads published by Forbes includes Farmak’s R&D Division and Roman Smishko as its Head.
To compile this ranking, the activities of 100 largest Ukrainian private companies were analysed. 25 R&D heads who managed to effectively develop study processes for new products were listed by the jury. They include the heads of R&D departments of Farmak, Nova Poshta, Kyivstar, DTEK, Alfa-Bank, etc.
Farmak first launched R&D in 1998 and it was called the Research and Development Division. Today Farmak’s R&D Division employs 190 researchers, including 46 candidates of sciences and 5 doctors of sciences. About USD 150 million has been invested since the launch.
R&D in pharmaceutical industry are research complexes that develop and study the medicinal products. Their main function is patenting activities, development of medicinal product prototype, development of analytical procedures of control, validation, manufacture of registration and clinical batches, stability study, launch of the medicinal product into the market.
In addition, Farmak’s R&D Division also cooperates with higher education institutions, Ukrainian scientific institutions, supports and promotes the development of employees’ scientific potential and science partnership, initiates participation in international programs. For example, Farmak has been a participant of such Horizon 2020 programmes as VAHVISTUS and ORBIS in Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) since 2017. In 2021 Farmak’s researchers developed an innovative PCR test that can simultaneously detect and differentiate strains of Sars-CoV-2, influenza A and B and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and presented the project at the UN General Assembly forum.
The fact that over 20 R&D products are authorized and marketed in Europe, and more than 70% of the products in the pipeline will be globalized in the near future is one of Farmak’s main achievements over the past few years.
By the way, Farmak launched the construction of a new innovative R&D centre in Kyiv in 2021. It will operate in the following areas: development of finished dosage forms, own active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), as well as an innovative area in which Farmak has been working since 2015. The Company’s investment in the construction of the innovative complex is more than EUR 30 million, the launch date is scheduled for 2023.
