OREANDA-NEWS. FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno)(“Fujifilm”) has announced that it reached an agreement on December 14 with one of Russia's major pharmaceutical companies, R-Pharm JSC (Chairman of the Board: Alexey Repik)(“R-Pharm”) for comprehensive partnership mainly in the area of healthcare.

Russia has the population of approx. 140 million with the average life span of 72 years. In order to ensure that its citizens can lead a healthy and enriched life, and to maintain / expand its working-age population, the Russian government faces the urgent need of enhancing and advancing its healthcare services. Russia's pharmaceutical and medical equipment market is currently worth approx. 4 trillion yen, about 1/3 the size of Japanese respective market, and expected to achieve rapid growth in coming years.

R-Pharm is a pharmaceutical company established in 2001, with business sites at about 60 locations across Russia. It has partnership with pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Europe to jointly develop a wide range of new drugs including those for cancer, infectious diseases and rheumatoid arthritis, and market them in Russia. R-Pharm also has a subsidiary that sells medical equipment, and has expressed its intention to focus on developing, manufacturing and marketing medical equipment.

Under this partnership, Fujifilm plans to engage in broad-based collaboration with R-Pharm in the healthcare business, including:

  1. 1. Deploying Fujifilm Group's healthcare business operations including pharmaceuticals, regenerative medicine in Russia
  2. 2. Deploying Fujifilm Group's medical equipment business in Russia
  3. 3. Deploying functional cosmetics and dietary supplements business in Russia
  4. 4. Considering the establishment of a joint venture for achieving the above

In 2015, Toyama Chemical, a Fujifilm Group company, signed a licensing agreement with R-Pharm's Turkish affiliate TR-Pharm with regard to “Iguratimod,” an anti-inflammatory drug for treating rheumatoid arthritis.

Recently, the summit between the leaders of Japan and Russia was held. With the increasing momentum for pursuing economic cooperation between the two countries, Fujifilm will accelerate market penetration of its products and services in Russia. Fujifilm seeks to expand its business in Russia in various areas including healthcare and other business fields.