How much insulin will Venezuela and Russia produce together in the next 5 years?

The Government of Venezuela and the Russian biotechnology company Geropharm at the end of March signed an agreement for the production of insulin drugs, an agreement that has had very little ‘publicity’ by the international media and which will provide for the manufacture of millions of containers of this palliative that will be manufactured within Venezuelan territory during the period 2021-2026.

According to a press release from the Geropharm company, the agreement signed with the Venezuelan Ministry of Health will have a duration of five years, and the respective plant will be established at the headquarters of the Socialist Company for the Production of Biological Medicines ( Espromed Bio), located in Caracas.

The arrangement, which had already been pre-established last February, was now signed by Geropharm CEO Petr Rodionov and Venezuelan Health Minister Carlos Alvarado.

The event was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Yuri Borisov; the Russian ambassador to Venezuela, Sergey Mikhaylovich Melik-Bagdasarov; the vice president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez; and the sector vice president for the Economic Area, Tarek El Aissami.

Geropharm will act as an «investor» in the project and will pass on to Espromed Bio the practical knowledge for the production of insulin drugs.

34 million containers of insulin in Venezuela

As established by the parties, Geropharm will invest in the modernization of the existing equipment in Venezuela and will transfer the technology for filling «the finished pharmaceutical form of recombinant human insulins». It will also provide training to personnel who will work in production.

The agreement also includes the supply of insulin «analogs» from Russia; while the Venezuelan government will provide the necessary assistance to Geropharm in the implementation of the project «and will guarantee the purchase of insulin drugs» during the agreed time.

The press release details that the Ministry of Health of Venezuela raised the need to obtain more than 34 million containers of insulin for the next five years, in order to serve a population of 2.96 million patients suffering from diabetes mellitus .

The Russian company has had a commercial relationship with Venezuela since 2019, when it began to provide insulin to the country amid the restrictions caused by the blockade imposed by the US and the European Union.

«At that time, international insulin manufacturers practically completely stopped deliveries of vital insulin drugs to Venezuela», the text says.

To date, Geropharm has delivered more than three million containers of insulin medications for Venezuelan patients, who already have several presentations on the market: fast and intermediate-acting recombinant Rinsulin® R, Rinsulin® NPH and Rinsu-lin® Mix 30/70 in vials, as well as the ultra-rapid and long-acting insulin analogs RinLis® (insulin lispro) and RinGlar® (insulin glargine) in cartridges.