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- Prescription for independence: the main medical breakthroughs of the Russian Federation in recent years
Prescription for independence: the main medical breakthroughs of the Russian Federation in recent years
In recent years, Russia has achieved significant success in the field of healthcare. The authorities have set the task to accelerate modernization in this area against the background of anti-Russian sanctions, which has led to the emergence of innovative treatment methods and modern drugs. How the Russian Federation develops medicine, what is unique about domestic technologies and drugs, and what impact this will have on the quality of life of patients — in the Izvestia article.
Under the wing of the state
The last few years have been marked by a large number of achievements in the field of healthcare in Russia. In 2025 alone, 33 units of pharmaceutical and medical products developed in the country were approved for use. In five years, the Russian market in this segment has grown fourfold. Federal government revenues from medical developments have increased 45-fold since 2020.
The Russian Science Foundation spends 10% of the total amount of 38.2 billion rubles per year on financing research in the field of medicine. It is the state that plays a significant role in providing researchers with the necessary resources. Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, during the general meeting of members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), pointed out the importance of domestic developments, noting that following advanced global trends allows moving forward, but does not ensure technological leadership and independence. At the same time, he emphasized that scientists need support not only at the sponsorship level, but also at the stage of introducing ready-made inventions into the healthcare sector.
Research activities in Russia in the field of medicine are conducted in several directions — from the creation of unique equipment to the production of innovative medicines. For example, the Institute of Analytical Instrumentation of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Syntol company have successfully completed the development of a domestic sequencer that can diagnose rare hereditary diseases and pathologies. This method is also widely used for genotyping future parents during pregnancy planning.
Active attention is also being paid to the fight against diseases considered incurable, such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The country has already obtained a patent for a drug that has minimal side effects when combined with lamivudine, a drug used in the treatment of HIV. And the drug, presented by scientists from the Federal Research Center "Fundamental Foundations of Biotechnology" of the Russian Academy of Sciences (together with colleagues from the USA and Italy), is potentially capable of completely destroying the virus, which could be a revolution in the treatment of the disease.
Serious attention is being paid to the development of pharmaceuticals in general. The country has firmly embarked on the formation of its own pharmaceutical industry, and the volume of the domestic market for medical equipment and medical products is about 500 billion rubles. 40 modern factories for the production of medicines have already been built in Russia.
And the work on the creation of new enterprises continues. By 2030, as Anton Alikhanov, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, reported during a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin, at least 10 more production facilities will appear. Over the next three years, construction projects will be implemented in Moscow, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod, Tomsk, Ufa and the Ryazan region.
The Russian pharmaceutical industry is actively moving towards import substitution, significantly outpacing the average economic indicators, confirms Kirill Masliev, Candidate of Medical Sciences, member of the Active and Long Life Commission at the State Council, Head of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Rudn University. According to him, the increase now stands at 15.4% compared to 1.3% by the end of 2025.
First of all, this success is really due to government support measures, including the implementation of the state strategy "Pharma-2030" and the national project "New Technologies for saving Health", which finances the development of medicines and raw materials, the expert is convinced. Initiatives adopted at the legislative level are also important.
— Starting in 2026, only those who have scored enough points on the localization assessment system have the right to be called a Russian manufacturer. The "second extra" rule has also been introduced: in public procurement, priority belongs to the local manufacturer if foreign suppliers are involved, the Izvestia interlocutor reminds.
From diabetes and allergies to SMA
First of all, speaking about the achievements of the Russian pharmaceutical industry, we can single out the development of innovative medicines. Right now, 14 drugs that have no analogues are undergoing registration in the country, Kirill Masliev notes.
— Among them, for example, a vaccine against food allergies, painkillers without opioids, as well as a medicine for the treatment of cancer of the digestive system and bladder based on peptide technologies, — he says.
The creation of allergovaccine Allergarda, developed by the Institute of Immunology of the FMBA of Russia, can be called a real breakthrough in the domestic pharmaceutical industry. It is a fundamentally new molecular drug designed for the prevention and treatment of allergy to birch pollen.
The effect of the vaccine, as reported by Gennady Krasnikov, President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, surpasses the effect of preparations based on allergen extracts. Another advantage is the reduction of the vaccination course. It takes only 3-5 injections instead of 30.
In January 2026, it was reported that as part of the third phase of clinical trials, Allergarda began to be actively administered to patients. The FMBA of Russia emphasized that, taking into account the results of the first and second phases, high efficacy of this allergovaccine can be expected. According to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the drug will be available in industrial production in 2027.
At the same time, a vaccine against ragweed pollen is already being developed on the basis of the FMBA. It is currently at the stage of preclinical research, but, as stated by Musa Khaitov, director of the Institute of Immunology of the FMBA, the drug is produced using the Allergardy platform (a module with well-studied and reproducible technologies), which facilitates and accelerates the process of its creation.
The fight against allergies, however, is not the only area of activity of Russian researchers. In particular, Russian scientists are currently developing a technology for producing insulin-producing cells from connective and stem tissues. This is expected to prevent the destruction of pancreatic beta cells, leading to loss of the ability to synthesize insulin. If successful, diabetic patients will be able to restore hormone production in the body by avoiding constant injections.
Active work is also underway on import substitution of vital and essential medicines. According to the results of the first and second quarters of 2026, 10 new medicines included in the list were registered and launched in Russia, according to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. We are talking about drugs used to treat cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other diseases.
In this area, the creation of a domestic analogue of the drug Zolgensma, designed for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, can be called an extremely significant achievement. This medicine is considered the most expensive in the world. The Russian drug is supposed to be able to provide the best ratio of efficacy and safety, and the side effects will be minimal. The drug's developers expect that it will be able to compete with Zolgensme not only domestically, but also on the global market.
In general, Kirill Masliev believes that import substitution in pharmacology is extremely important, since localization not only reduces dependence on foreign medicines, but also reduces the cost of the drug. According to the expert, with the saturation of the domestic market, Russian drugs will be in high demand abroad, and the export potential of such drugs is huge.
Safe magnetism
In May 2026, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Gennady Krasnikov, presented the most important achievements of Russian scientists of the past year, highlighting among them the appearance of a Russian MRI-compatible pacemaker. The implant was created by specialists from the Bakulev National Medical Research Center for Cardiovascular Surgery of the Russian Ministry of Health. This EX allows you to continuously analyze the work of the heart, which will help prevent severe complications.
About 60,000 pacemaker implantations are performed annually in Russia in patients with rare heart rhythm (bradyarrhythmias), Elena Golukhova, Director of the Bakulev National Research Medical Center for Cardiovascular Surgery, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, notes in an interview with Izvestia. The range of patients is extremely diverse — from newborns with congenital blockade variants to elderly citizens.
At the same time, there was previously an absolute restriction on conducting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in people with pacemakers. Meanwhile, according to modern concepts, everything that is implanted in the human body must be compatible with a magnetic field. The need for an MRI scan may not be related to the heart and may arise at any time: a person may need to examine the spine, joints, brain or other organs, the editorial's interlocutor emphasizes.
— Therefore, the opportunity to safely undergo an MRI in the presence of a pacemaker is primarily an expansion of the patient's capabilities and the availability of modern diagnostics, it is a new quality of active life. We also believe that using the radio frequency channel will allow us to successfully implement another extremely important task for the country in the future — remote monitoring of the functions of implantable devices," she is convinced.
However, this MRI-compatible pacemaker is not the only one. The EX Apollo MPI, presented by Rostec, has already been put into mass production. In the first half of 2026, more than 200 patients received such implants. In August of this year, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation reported that Rostec plans to supply more than 1,000 devices to Russian hospitals by the end of the year. And by 2027, the production of EX is expected to increase to 5 thousand units.
"The Apollo MRI pacemaker compatible with MRI was created as part of the import substitution program. <...>. There are similar developments abroad, but they are not widely distributed yet. Now such devices will be available here in Russia. Therefore, we can say that we are at the forefront of advanced technologies here," Sergey Dmitrochenko, General Director of Rostec's RT—Medical Technologies Competence Center for Medical Instrumentation, said earlier.
Nuclear physics against cancer
Many notable developments can be noted in the field of cancer treatment. Serious steps, for example, have been made in proton therapy. This method will make it possible to irradiate a tumor with a super-powerful proton beam in order to destroy the neoplasm in a fraction of a second without damaging healthy tissues with radiation. This is especially important in situations where the tumor is located deeply or its localization is considered difficult (for example, in the brain).
The proton therapy complex in Russia, for example, is located at the A.F. Tsyba MRSC, a branch of the NMIC of Radiology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The underlying technology implements the idea of a "vertical" cross—section, that is, irradiation without an expensive gantry, a rotating system that allows a proton beam to be directed at a patient from different angles, says the director of the Tsyba MRSC, corresponding member. RAN Sergey Ivanov.
— In a sense, this is a well-known technology that is currently undergoing a renaissance, due to the massive need for replicated and inexpensive proton therapy. A good proof of the success of this approach is the results of large—scale studies in recent years, in which tumors of the head, neck and brain are treated in the "sitting" position, without Gantry, and it is patients with such tumors who receive the greatest effect from proton therapy," explains the interlocutor of Izvestia.
Proton therapy also determines the potential for lung malignancies and a number of other nosologies, he clarifies. And for pediatric patients, this technology has long been recognized as the main method of radiation treatment worldwide.
— Currently, there are three proton therapy centers in Russia, while the treatment of malignant neoplasms in Russian citizens is fully carried out within the framework of the state guarantees program, — the expert emphasizes.
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