How are medicines produced? A press tour to the GEROPHARM company was organized for journalists

How are medicines prepared? A press tour to GEROPHARM was organized for journalists

A group of journalists from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan participated in a press tour organized to closely familiarize themselves with the activities of the Russian pharmaceutical company "GEROPHARM". During the trip, they were shown how the main active substances of medicines are produced, how product quality is controlled, and how production processes are automated.

The company's production workshops are located in the city of Pushkin, near Saint Petersburg. Nearly 400 employees work here. Approximately 30 percent of the staff works in the quality control and assurance departments. The complex consists of three main workshops. The workshops for producing original preparations were launched in 2017, insulin in 2018, and tablets and capsules in 2024.

The main active substances in the composition of medicines are produced at the enterprise. Later, finished medicines are prepared based on these very substances. The next stage of production is carried out at another enterprise of the company located in the town of Obolensk in the Moscow region.

During the press tour, journalists were shown the main stages of production and the quality control system. Notably, a large part of the processes at the enterprise is automated. In some workshops, the level of automation reaches up to 90 percent.

For example, instead of manually opening valves, measuring liquids, or constantly changing equipment parameters, the technologist runs a pre-prepared and verified electronic recipe. After that, the system independently performs the specified sequence of operations, while the specialist monitors the main stages.

In this process, almost every action performed is captured on video. If questions arise later regarding certain batches, specialists can determine on which equipment it was produced, who worked with it, what indicators were recorded, and when the equipment underwent inspection.

"GEROPHARM" has been operating in the pharmaceutical market of Uzbekistan for more than 20 years. One of the main directions of the company is to provide the population with vital medicines for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, obesity, as well as neurological and ophthalmological diseases. The company also contributes to expanding the possibilities of modern therapy by presenting innovative preparations for the treatment of obesity. In 2026, GEROPHARM's main products in the field of endocrinology successfully passed the "Halal" certification, which confirms the strict compliance of the preparations with high quality standards and the cultural values of the region.

As the production stages progress, cleanliness requirements become even stricter. Starting from a certain stage, it becomes important not to protect the employee from the production environment, but to protect the product from the human being themselves.

"At certain stages, we protect the substance not from ourselves, but from the human being. Because the main source of contamination is the human being. For this reason, it is impossible to enter the cleanest production zones in ordinary clothes. Employees change into special, lint-free clothes, cover their hair and exposed parts of the body," says Irina Spirkina.

Temperature, humidity, pressure, and air condition are constantly monitored in the rooms. Each produced batch of substance is analyzed according to more than 20 indicators.

If the system detects any deviation or non-compliance, the product is not released into production until specialists find its cause.

The substance prepared at the enterprise in Pushkin is transported to the enterprise in Obolensk while maintaining the necessary temperature regime.

During the three-day press tour, the journalists received answers to many questions of interest to them. They became convinced that medicine production is a complex and responsible process, and that special attention is paid to quality and safety at every stage.

"When we were studying at the university, we always analyzed patients' medical histories. Obesity was always in third, and sometimes even fourth place in diagnoses. The top places were mainly occupied by chronic ischemic heart disease, hypertension, or myocardial infarction.

I always asked the teachers: 'If we understand that obesity is the main cause of all these vascular diseases and severe complications, why do we put it at the very end of the list?' No one could answer me back then.

Only years later did I understand the reason myself. The answer turned out to be very simple: in those days, there were no medicines to treat obesity. If there was no medicine, it was treated as if the disease itself did not exist. But today, approaches are changing: excess weight is not just an aesthetic problem, but has officially moved into the category of serious medical diagnoses," says Roman Dray, a doctor by profession and director of the company's research and development center.

At the same time, Roman Dray specially warns that striving for quick results is dangerous and that it is necessary to observe medical standards when losing weight:

"You cannot lose weight quickly. From a medical point of view, a safe norm is about 3–4 kilograms per month. All human internal organs are surrounded by a fat layer. If a person loses 10–20 kilograms in a month, the internal organs do not have time to adapt to the new state in the body. This becomes a very strong stress for the body: hair falls out, the menstrual cycle is disrupted, and hormonal changes can also occur. Weight must be lost gradually, step-by-step, and definitely under the supervision of a doctor," says Roman Dray.

Anxious headlines regularly appear on social networks around semaglutide and tirzepatide. During the meeting, Roman Dray compared them with data from real clinical trials.

"Concerns that medicines of this type can cause thyroid cancer initially arose based on experiments conducted on animals. After experiments were conducted on rats, certain changes were detected in their thyroid gland. Because there are several times more GLP-1 receptors in the thyroid gland of rats than in humans. In humans, the situation is different. In the SELECT study involving 17.6 thousand people and clinical trials involving more than 50 thousand people worldwide, no cases of thyroid cancer associated with taking semaglutide or tirzepatide were detected.

You might have also heard hypotheses that these medicines can damage bones. These opinions are also based on certain biochemical indicators. But in practice, no clear statistics showing an increase in bone fractures have been presented. On the contrary, weight loss reduces the excess load on joints and bones.

Various rumors have also spread about 'stomach paralysis' or gastroparesis. The preparations indeed slow down stomach activity slightly. This helps a person feel full for a longer period of time. But cases where stomach activity stopped completely were not recorded in clinical trials. Discomfort can mainly be observed in the first month when the body is adapting to the effect of the medicine.

Some people ask whether muscle mass also decreases along with fat when taking the preparation. In the process of losing weight, the body can lose not only fat, but also part of the lean mass — that is, muscle, water, and other tissues. However, studies show that the main part of weight loss comes from fat.

Therefore, during the weight loss period, it is important to consume a sufficient amount of protein and perform regular physical exercises, especially strength training. This helps to preserve muscle mass as much as possible," says Roman Dray, director of the company's research and development center.

A journalistic visit to the plant in the city of Pushkin is not something that can always be carried out. Because the production process here is conducted under strict discipline, high precision, and constant control. Not only the production of preparations, but also their storage process is monitored with special attention.

During the press tour, the process of creating preparations — from the initial microbiological test tube to the finished syringe pens stored in the warehouse — was openly demonstrated to the journalists. The development of science and medicine is, of course, good. But the emergence of modern preparations should not prompt a person to give up physical activity or not limit themselves in eating. Medicine is not the only way to solve the problem.

Remember, following a healthy lifestyle helps to get rid of any disease and the problem of obesity.