Published on: 2026-10-09
Source: Novosibirsk State University –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
On October 3rd, an open lecture was held in the flow lecture halls building of NSU, which is part of the second phase of the university’s new campus. Rustem Muratov — a graduate of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of NSU, a chemist, laureate of the All-Russian competition “Platinum Ounce,” recipient of the Order of Friendship, former CEO of “Binnopharm Group” — one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Russia.
Lecture topic: “AI and Big Data in Drug Development. Career Navigator.” Rustem Bulatovich told students and teachers how the pharmaceutical industry really works, why developing new drugs is an “almost pointless endeavor” from an economic perspective, and how AI changes (and doesn’t change) the industry. The conversation was honest. The questions were provocative.
Why development is not the main thing
If you ask a regular person what pharma does, they will answer: invents new medicines. The speaker dispelled this myth right from the start:
— From an economic point of view, developing a new molecule is almost a completely pointless endeavor. Why? Let’s start with the big numbers. The process takes about 10 years, costs roughly a billion dollars, and has a 90% chance of failure. Is that really a sensible endeavor?
That is precisely why innovative pharmaceuticals are handled only by large Western (and recently Chinese) companies. The speaker also reminded that most drugs in the world are not original medications but generics, recreated versions of them. 75–80% of the market in packages consists exactly of these, because after the development and a ten-year patent, other companies come in to reproduce or make a generic version of the original drug—that is, a medicine with the same active ingredient but cheaper.
— Creating a new molecule and making a new molecule cheaper are, in terms of their impact on people and markets, equally significant things — noted Rustem.
There was a question from the audience about the fact that sometimes it is advised to buy a drug from one manufacturer, but not to buy from another.
— What actually affects you — the active ingredient or substance — is the same. There are nuances — the degree of purification, excipients. Are the tablets completely identical? No, but every year regulations become stricter, and today the tablets that are registered are very similar to the original: not just the same active ingredient, but, for example, their dissolution curve in the body should be the same. — answered Muratov.
So what about pharma then? It’s not one industry, but four.
If development is not the main thing, then what does the industry actually consist of?
— Pharma is not a single industry or a single business. It consists of four different segments, — said the speaker.
The first is the production of active ingredients. This is “chemistry-chemistry”: reactors, treatment facilities, a global scale. So global that localizing it in one country is almost impossible unless you trade with the whole world. The second block is the production of finished dosage forms. Here Russia, according to the speaker, is quite advanced: 300–400 factories, several state programs, and the quality “is much better than most factories, for example, in East Asian countries.” The third is wholesale trade and logistics. The fourth is pharmacies and hospitals.
Then why is everyone talking about AI?
The stated topic of the lecture was about AI and Big Data in drug development. Muratov’s response was unexpected.
— There is a suspicion that we are hammering nails not even with a microscope. We misinterpret the very thing called artificial intelligence, especially since it is not intelligence at all, — said Muratov.
According to him, large language models by their nature work well where there is a need to improve processes, communications, and document management, but they cannot generate new scientific knowledge:
— Roughly speaking, the model simply chews over texts already generated by humanity, — he explained.
Moreover, AI increasingly complicates its own work from a scientific standpoint: the share of data generated by AI is growing, while the “share of relevant data on which frontier research can be conducted keeps decreasing and decreasing.”
Where AI is really good, however, is in marketing or, say, regulatory affairs. For example, writing a dossier according to Indonesian standards in Bahasa or generating quality control documents for the production of a batch of medicines based on known data.
— Generating a good, properly structured document, protocol, or dossier from clear inputs, which can then be used in all processes, is definitely the right idea for AI in pharmaceuticals, — Muratov believes.
How the global market works: the example of India
To understand why some countries produce cheaply while others produce expensively, Muratov gave the example of India, which, for instance, supplies 70% of the tablets sold in the US — and the secret lies not only in cheap production.
— On the one hand, India does indeed invest a lot of funds in building chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. On the other hand, it is a common practice of an Indian company, even a large one, to build two factories. One factory is the real one, and the other is a showpiece. Inspectors visit the showpiece factory, where they are shown documents and impressive production technologies. Nobody will be invited to the real factory, — he said.
Several years ago, according to the speaker, one of the largest Indian manufacturers almost lost its registration certificates in the USA — because “completely by accident, instead of the Indian inspector, the American one arrived” and went to the wrong plant.
— There was a huge scandal. That is, a person accidentally came to the wrong factory, the one he was supposed to come to, where everything is beautiful, but to the real one, — said Muratov.
The story about the cheapest “Ozempic” in the world
This is about semaglutide — the active ingredient in Ozempic, a weight loss drug.
The Danish company Novo Nordisk failed to handle the production volumes on a global scale and wrote a letter to our Ministry of Industry and Trade stating that it will not supply the drug to Russia. This became the basis for a compulsory license.
As a result, several manufacturers of semaglutide are now registered in Russia, a “direct head-on competition” has begun, and prices have fallen by 60% just in the past year.
— Russia currently has the cheapest semaglutide in the world, — noted the expert.
How did a chemist become a CEO?
Such a question was asked from the audience.
— I worked from my first year, worked in a laboratory, which I also wish for you. Not only from the point of view of earning money (which is also very good), but from the point of view that by the time you graduate, you will understand whether you need it or not, — said Rustem.
After defending my thesis, I worked on catalysis, but at some point I realized that science was not for me.
— There was a specific moment in time when I realized that science was definitely not for me, I wasn’t that interested in it, — Muratov recalled.
At the same time, in his 3rd–4th year, he became interested in a new technology that was just emerging back then — the internet. At that time, he and his friends managed one of the first internet nodes in Siberia as a whole and in Novosibirsk in particular; it was a super-new and very interesting story. He realized that he found it interesting and moved in that direction. He worked for a provider, and then left to join one of its clients — a pharmaceutical company. Since then, he has been in pharma.
At the pharmaceutical company, Muratov started with IT but gradually worked in various areas.
— IT, marketing, supplier relations, sales, branch management, work with government bodies, logistics, investments, warehouse construction and management. I was always engaged in something new — and that is very important. Only if you are always doing something new, discovering new topics, fields, and hobbies — can you work in the same company for a long time, — he said.
One of the striking episodes was when he was assigned to build a warehouse in Nizhny Novgorod.
— Once my manager told me, “You need to go talk with the builders.” I said, “Why?” — “Well, we are building a warehouse in Nizhny Novgorod. Go, get involved.” I said, “Listen, I’m not a builder. I have nothing to do with warehouses, don’t know about this — I can only spend money badly.” But he told me, “If you don’t know — you’ll learn. If you lose money on this project — you’ll do the next one better.” After that, I opened 25 more warehouses. — he shared.
Then he left the wholesale part of the pharmaceutical business to join manufacturing.
— I immediately told myself that this is a different business, so I need to start over. I stepped down from the position of vice president to a lower level, and then after 2 years I returned to my level and first became the commercial director, then the general director. Interesting? Yes, interesting. Hard? Very, the hardest eight years of my life. — Muratov recalls.
But a result was achieved as well. Under his leadership, the company rose from 64th place in the ranking to sixth position, became second among Russian companies, and the leader in terms of export volume. Why didn’t he stay where he was? He explains simply.
— I have already done this, proved to myself that I can do it — now I need to try something new. And what is very interesting is the next stage, — said Muratov.
Right now, he wants to start his own pharmaceutical company from scratch. But he recommends that not everyone should become the CEO.
— The profession of a manager in general, and a CEO in particular, is very specific. It does not at all grow out of the skills you are taught at university. It is much more about management and interacting with people than any professional background, — he emphasized.
The main advice is not to fear the new.
—This is the best thing you can do for yourself. The bad story is when you stop, sit in one place, and get bored. The good one is when there is always something interesting, always something curious. “This is the most important thing”. — Muratov said.
Do you need to go into pharma?
— If you want fast movements, explosive market growth, what is now popularly called disruption — pharma is not really that. It’s slow. Not because it’s bad, but because its main focus is to make a good medicine that is tested, safe, and truly effective. But that doesn’t at all mean that if you are energetic and active, the path there is closed off for you. Pharma is large, very multifaceted, and, as I have already said, it’s not only about pharmaceuticals or chemistry, but also about marketing, production, logistics, and much more, there’s room for everyone. And, by the way, it’s a very intelligent industry, — Muratov said.
And finally — about the university:
— I am very grateful to the university for what it personally made of me. The main story is not that I learned something. One day our teacher said, “Guys, I can’t teach you anything. I can only point out where to read about it.” And that’s exactly how it works: the university broadens your horizons, you are surrounded by smart people, you can acquire new knowledge, regardless of the field. This is the main thing the university can teach you, — he concluded.
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