The finale of the GxP Fest intentional student festival rounded off in Moscow

The festival, held from February 22 till April 21, 2022, was organized by the ANO “Eurasian Academy of Good Practices” with support of the FSI “State Institute of Drugs and Good Practices”, Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. The competitive section of the GxP Fest 2022 comprised two rounds and, for the first time, it targeted two audiences, i.e. students and lecturers.

Activities for students, lecturers, and guests of the Festival were in progress simultaneously on April 21.

Representatives of relevant ministries and agencies of Russia, EAEU member states, Eurasian Economic Commission, leadership of the Academy graced the inauguration ceremony and gave welcoming remarks to the Festival’s participants. Director of the FSI “State Institute of Drugs and Good Practices”, Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vladislav Shestakov highlighted, “Today’s complicated situation creates new challenges and opportunities for building up the pharmaceutical industry in Russia and in the EAEU space, which makes the matter of nurturing and training young talents for developing the pharmaceutical manufacturing even more urgent”.

After the official address, the GxP Quest, which is an interactive team game consisting in giving professional answers and solutions according to the tasks on the special playing panel with challenges and opportunities of various levels, was launched. The experts of the Academy developed a unique software for the GxP Quest.

The teams who managed to complete the tasks of the playing panel in a faster way and made fewer mistakes became the winners,

The first place was taken by the team of St. Petersburg State Chemical and Pharmaceutical University (Pharm Power);

The team of Privolzhsky Research Medical University (PharmStars) took the second place;

The third place was taken by the XPlosion team of Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University.  

All the winners received scholarships and valuable prizes.

Lilia Titova, Executive Director of the Union of Professional Pharmaceutical Organization, and a partner of the GxP Fest, handed special prizes over to the winners of the creativity competition, under which contestants were offered to submit a creative photograph and video of their teams.

Professional competitions by pharmaceutical companies, workshops, and virtual meetings with representatives of the industry business community, a webinar on creating a successful CV by the HeadHunter Company, as well as a job fair, during which students could check out vacancies and internship opportunities at Russia’s best pharmaceutical companies, were also arranged for the students participating in the GxP Fest.

The pharma experts and academic community that were present at the event noted a high level of expertise of the participants and wished the students a successful advancement in the industry that they had opted for.

The first place in the competition section for lecturers and their innovative teaching and learning aids in the GxP field, was taken by the authoring team of Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Russian Ministry of Health (Moscow).  

The winning places were also taken by faculties of Asfendiyarov Kazakh National Medical University   (Almaty), Altai State Medical University (Barnaul), and Voronezh State University (Voronezh).

Concurrently, the official platform of the GxP Fest hosted a plenary session that addressed the issues related to training professionals for the pharmaceutical industry. Leading pharmaceutical experts, officials of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Ministry of Healthcare of Belarus, Eurasian Economic Commission, top management of 40 pharmaceutical companies, executives and lecturers of the specialized educational institutions of the Russian Federation and the EAEU member states took part in the plenary session.

A resolution for the regulatory authorities was adopted following the results of the plenary session. One of its most important provisions is to facilitate the improvement of the curricula in Russian higher educational institutions and harmonize the regulatory liaising among the relevant ministries and agencies. The resolution also states how crucial it is to help forming an open academic space for faculties to provide an opportunity for professional internship at pharmaceutical enterprises. The experts suggest the best practices of pharma should be promoted through innovative educational technologies, including the virtual ones.

At the end of the GxP Fest, Executive Director of the Eurasian Academy of Good Practices, Professor Irina Spichak, and Director of International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering, Vladimir Orlov, signed a Cooperation Agreement on Exchange of Knowledge and Experience. The document provides for joint training events, the organization of international round tables, conferences, congresses, sessions, seminars, and other events of the kind.

Partners of the GxP Fest are Pharmimex, Skopinpharm, PharmEco, Nacimbio, R-Pharm group of companies, Sotex pharmaceutical firm, Valenta Pharm, Pharmasynthez, Akrikhin, Bristol Myers Squibb, Generium, Hetero group of companies, and Nanolek.