Penza, 17 December 2015. PenzaNews. The companies of the Penza biomedical cluster “Biomed” successfully work in the import replacement field that became particularly vital in the current economy situation, announced Sergei Yevdokimov, head manager of “MedInzh,” board chairman of the cluster, during the press conference held at “Rameev” technopark on Thursday, December 17.

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The company “MedInzh” has completed its obligations in full under the federal program in 2015, he pointed out.

“Today we received a copy of the agreement with the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade that will be subsidizing our expenses – only a very small part, but that’s still nice – in organizing production of new items,” Sergei Yevdokimov said.

According to him, the size of subsidies cannot be evaluated precisely.

“While the region proudly tells us it gives us 7 million rubles, the Ministry of Industry [and Trade of the Russian Federation] gives us 200 million [rubles] over 3 years. The figures, as you can see, are impossible to compare. But this is at most only 20% of our expenses,” explained the head manager of “MedInzh.”

Describing the main obstacles in production of medical prosthetics and implants for import replacement, Sergei Yevdokimov highlighted the technical lag noticeable in Russia, materials doubling or even tripling in costs, and a lack of qualified staff.

He also pointed out that the work of youth innovation centers in “Rameev” technopark helps teach the youth a creative approach to problem-solving, which they may carry to the cluster enterprises in the future.

“The difficulties do exist, but the main advantage is that the technopark program allowed the Penza region to significantly upgrade its technical capabilities,” Sergei Yevdokimov stressed, adding that production of certain items here, now a reality, was impossible to even imagine only 5 years ago.

“Let’s talk about our objectives. We had 16 medical products queued for registration, registered 7 this year, 9 more coming up next year. As for the cluster overall, the so-called Bortnik Foundation currently has provided support for several of our projects that we have shown during the Bakulevsky gathering. They attracted great interest. They are related to aortocoronary shunting operations without cardioplegia. […] We are enormously indebted to Vladlen Vladlenovich [Bazylev, chief medical officer of the federal cardiovascular surgery center (FCVSC) under the Russian Health Ministry] for coronary shunts. We finally created them, and will be registering them now. […] So here we have a new item. They told me just today that they confirmed the registration for this item – for children surgery, for pulmonary artery valve replacement. Made in accordance with the idea and the objectives set by Evgeny Vladimirovich Rosseykin, the leading heart surgeon [of the FCVSC],” explained the board chairman of “Biomed.”

The cluster is also working to created new osteoplasty materials, he added.

“In a nutshell, it is artificial bone material to be used in dentistry or in trauma orthopedic surgery. We received the first registration document this year. But the line is very big, so we plan to continue this work further in the next year. We greatly hope next year we will be registering our pelvis joint prosthesis, as well as spinal cages – artificial intervertebral disks, so to say,” Sergei Yevdokimov pointed out.

There are still a great many objectives for the Penza producers to achieve, he stressed.

“Many new items will be appearing every year. The quantity of items sold, and our income – both for the Penza region and for the cluster enterprises – will be growing year to year,” concluded the head manager of “MedInzh.”