R-Pharm is an international pharmaceutical company headquartered in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. It reached the headlines in 2020 following approval of its drug "

Coronavir Coronavir is an anti-viral drug approved in Russia for the treatment of COVID-19. Little is known of this drug, except for the information released by its developer R-Pharm. By the description provided to the press, coronavir seems to be an inh ...

" as a treatment in cases of mild to moderate

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

infection. It was founded by

Alexey Repik Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin A ...

( ru) in 2001, but has had an increasingly international operations base since, with Japanese Corporation

Mitsui is one of the largest ''keiretsu'' in Japan and one of the largest corporate groups in the world. The major companies of the group include Mitsui & Co. (general trading company), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Nippon Paper Industries ...

& Co., Ltd. acquiring 10% of its shares in 2017.

Activity

The company's scope of activities covers areas related to the development, research, production, marketing of drugs intended primarily for inpatient and specialized medical care. The main areas of activity are: production of finished dosage forms, active pharmaceutical ingredients of chemical nature and biotechnological substances, research and development of drugs and technologies, introduction to the Russian market of pharmaceuticals.

COVID-19

In 2020, during the COVID-19 outbreak in Russia, the company announced its intention to assist in the mass production of the

Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V (russian: Спутник V, the brand name from RDIF) or Gam-COVID-Vac (russian: Гам-КОВИД-Вак, the name under which it is legally registered and produced) is an adenovirus viral vector vaccine for COVID-19 developed by ...

developed by the

Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology The Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology,russian: Национальный исследовательский центр эпидемиологии и микробиологии имени почётного академ� ...

. It also announced that it had received a license to manufacture the British

Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine The Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID19 vaccine, sold under the brand names Covishield and Vaxzevria among others, is a viral vector vaccine for prevention of COVID-19. Developed in the United Kingdom by Oxford University and British-Swedish com ...

. The company also manufactured the drug

, which has been described as the first prescription drug specifically developed against

to reach the market. It was approved for use in hospitals in July 2020, and in September 2020 it received approval for prescription sales for outpatient use. In December 2020, R-Pharm and the

signed a Memorandum of Understanding with

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includ ...

to collaborate on the development of the COVID-19 vaccine and to conduct joint trials of the British and Russian vaccines.

References

{{Reflist COVID-19 pandemic in Russia Orphan drug companies Vaccine producers Medical research Pharmaceutical companies of Russia

Activity

COVID-19

See also

References