(Re)Imagining the Nation? Boosting Local Drug Development in Contemporary Russia

Abstract

This chapter examines recent government initiatives to boost innovative drug development and production in Russia and uncertainties that accompany these initiatives. The problem to be solved through the employment of pharmaceutical science and technology has been defined in economic terms and has focused largely on the local market. Ambitious policies and promises must be realised by such actors on the ground as academics and industrialists, who struggle with the rapid legislative change and pressing demands to deliver results. Focusing on complying with the new rules and trying to satisfy conditions for receiving state support, actors pay less attention to linking technoscientific developments with actual health needs. Their modes of navigating uncertainties allow them to survive in the rapidly shifting environment and continue their work but simultaneously may divorce drug development from public health and well-being.