On June 14, Evgeny Shlyakhto, Director General of Almazov Centre, took part in the roundtable session “Strategy for Introducing Personalized Medicine”.
The event, dedicated to the introduction of personalized medicine technologies, was opened by Tatyana Yakovleva, First Deputy Head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, who highlighted the importance of the problem, the need for new legislation on the production and introduction of personalized medicines, and the need to consolidate efforts.
In his speech, Evgeny Shlyakhto outlined the modern concept of personalized medicine, spoke about the results of a survey among doctors, in particular, most doctors are interested in introducing these technologies, but they see legal and financial problems, they note a lack of knowledge and skills. He also pointed out the importance of the digitalization of healthcare for the implementation of this concept. Later in the discussion, much was said about personalized oncology, tumour markers and targeted anti-tumor therapy, and prevention based on genetic diagnosis. The meeting touched on issues of ethics and public perception of these technologies. Not all patients agree to genetic testing. Evgeny Shlyakhto emphasized that education should not only concern doctors, but the whole of society and all healthcare professionals.
Evgeny Shlyakhto also spoke at the plenary session “National Drug Policy: The Road to Russian Sovereignty”, where the role of national drug policy in the strategy to ensure the country's economic security was discussed. The session focused on the challenges facing the drug supply system today and strategies to address them, the conditions for increasing the supply of innovative medicines to the market, and strengthening the export potential of the Russian pharmaceutical industry.
Prof. Shlyakhto outlined the success in reducing mortality from circulatory diseases, with the achievement of minimal values over the past 30 years. The key intervention that ensured the success in reducing mortality was the drug benefit programme for high-risk patients. The implementation of the programme enabled the reorganization of the system of cardiac care, with an increase in the proportion of patients having regular medical checkups, and increased the availability of innovative drugs that affect morbidity and mortality in this category of patients. In addition, he drew the attention of the meeting participants to the need to create an ecosystem involving government and business to speed up the introduction of innovations.