The developers of the Russian drug dimolegin attracted an ex-official and a pharmaceutical distributor as investors

The developers of the Russian drug dimolegin, used in cardiovascular diseases, have attracted investors. They were the former vice-governor of Sakhalin, co-owner of a number of structures of the Antey fishing group Arkady Pinchevsky and the founder of the pharmaceutical distributor Grand Capital Denis Remenyako. Retail sales of anticoagulants in the first half of 2023 alone reached RUB 23 billion. The high demand for such drugs in particular and the absence of Western sanctions against the pharmaceutical industry in general attract non-core investors to this industry.

The registration certificate for the anticoagulant dimolegin was transferred from Pharmadiol, the developer of the drug, to Avexima Diol, Kommersant found in the state register of medicines. According to open sources, the rights to the trademark and patents for medicines in the EAEU were also transferred to the new company (the main one is valid until 2035).

Avexima Diol was established in February 2023. In this company, 33% belongs to Farmadiol, the same size of shares belongs to the founder of the pharmaceutical distributor Grand Capital Denis Remenyako and the former vice-governor of the Sakhalin region, as well as the former head of the board of directors of the Moscow vodka plant Kristall Arkady Pinchevsky. Since 2020, he has also been a co-owner of a number of structures of the Antey group engaged in crab fishing.

Oleg Balashov, the main owner of Farmadiol, forwarded questions to Kommersant Denis Remenyako. Grand Capital and Antey did not respond to Kommersant’s request. It was not possible to contact Arkady Pinchevsky.

The Ministry of Health registered dimolegin in December 2022 for the prevention of thrombotic complications in adults with moderate COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, the drug was tested as a means of preventing venous thromboembolic complications in knee replacements. The drug has not yet been introduced into circulation, follows from the data of Roszdravnadzor.

Avexima Diol is registered on Russky Island in Vladivostok. Back in 2021, Avexima and Grand Capital announced plans to create a complex for the development and production of drugs on the island, including for their export to the markets of the Asia-Pacific region. A year earlier, Avexima signed an agreement of intent with the Russkiy INTC Development Fund (a territory with a preferential tax regime). So far, this company has two production sites – in the Kemerovo and Sverdlovsk regions.

Dimolegin belongs to anticoagulants. In January-June 2023, retail sales of funds from this group as a whole reached 23 billion rubles, according to DSM Group. This segment also includes xarelto from Bayer and eliquis from Pfizer, which became the leaders in sales in pharmacies in the first half of 2023: in total they were bought for 12.57 billion rubles, according to DSM Group. Government agencies purchased these two drugs for another 9.3 billion rubles during the same period, according to the Headway Company.

Dimolegin is a promising innovative drug that can replace imported anticoagulants, says Sergey Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group. But clinical trials are expensive, the costs can reach 1 billion rubles, for which, the expert does not exclude, it might be necessary to attract investors.

According to Mr. Shulyak, the partnership may include commitments to invest or finance clinical trials, or provide for milestone payments. Royalties can range from 5% to 15% of revenue or margin, according to Kommersant’s source on the market. The fixed payment, taking into account the fact that the drug is not yet circulating on the market, cannot exceed 50 million rubles, he adds.

The presence of partners as a pharmaceutical manufacturer “Avexima” and a distributor of “Grand Capital” will help to scale up the production and sales of the drug, Sergey Shulyak notes. The pharmaceutical industry is attractive to investors from other industries, Nikolay Bespalov, RNC Pharma Development Director, adds: the industry is not under Western sanctions and is stable in the current crisis conditions.

Polina Gritsenko