Russia is strengthening its technological leadership in healthcare and reducing its dependence on external supplies. One of the key instruments in achieving these objectives is the national project “New Technologies for Health Preservation.” It is aimed at developing cutting-edge scientific and technological solutions in medicine and ensuring their timely implementation in clinical practice—in other words, making innovations accessible to physicians as quickly as possible and enabling them to contribute effectively to the protection of public health. RIA Novosti provides an overview of how leading national medical research centers are developing new treatment methods and incorporating them into their work.
Accessible Innovation
A central area of the national project is “Medical Science Management.” This encompasses not only support for fundamental and applied research—including bioengineering and medical artificial intelligence—but also the rapid transfer of domestic laboratory breakthroughs to the medical community, ensuring they become available to every patient.
Over the past five years, substantial progress has been achieved within the framework of the project. According to Veronika Skvortsova, Head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), more than 100 innovative products—pharmaceuticals, diagnostic test systems, and medical devices—were developed, tested, registered, and introduced into practice between 2020 and 2024.
“In recent years, we have built a powerful scientific cluster consisting of 35 research centers, including eight strategic federal state unitary enterprises. This allows us to carry out full-cycle development—from conceptual and fundamental stages to prototype creation, testing, technology transfer to production, and practical implementation,” Skvortsova noted.
By 2030, the national project aims to raise Russia’s technological sovereignty in the production of pharmaceuticals, biomedical cell products, tissue-engineering items, and medical goods to 80%.
A Breakthrough in Treating Ankylosing Spondylitis
Researchers at Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University have developed and introduced into clinical practice an innovative drug for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. Its distinguishing feature is that it operates without systemic immunosuppression.
“We asked a fundamental question: why does the disease occur? Because lymphocytes attack the body’s own tissues. Using megasequencing and bioinformatics methods, we created an antibody that eliminates these cells. Broad-spectrum immunosuppressive drugs are unsuitable because systemic immunosuppression can adversely affect overall health,” explained Sergey Lukyanov, Rector of Pirogov University and scientific director of the project.
The new mechanism allows many patients to achieve full remission during the course of treatment while preserving the body’s overall immune defense.
The drug is already being used to treat radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (r-axSpA), commonly known as ankylosing spondylitis. Researchers do not rule out expanding its approved indications in the future.
“The therapeutic effect is profound: remission enables patients to lead full lives. I believe this approach will eventually be applied to other diseases,” Lukyanov said.
The development is part of a broader scientific strategy. According to Lukyanov, the platform will form the basis for an entire line of new medications. A drug for type 1 diabetes, created using a similar approach, has already received authorization to begin Phase I clinical trials.
A New Physiotherapy Method
The I.P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences is implementing two innovative projects under the national initiative “New Technologies for Health Preservation,” in the fields of biomedicine and neurotechnology.
The first project concerns a fundamentally new physiotherapy method.
“The method is based on our experimental research, which enabled us to develop principles of hypoxic conditioning to enhance the body’s resilience. The method employs repeated conditioning exposures—interval hypoxia/hyperoxia sessions at 24-hour intervals—aimed at rapidly activating specific and nonspecific adaptation mechanisms at the cellular and systemic levels. This explains the broad spectrum of health-promoting effects,” said the project’s scientific supervisor, Yelena Rybnikova, Deputy Director of the Institute and Head of the Laboratory of Brain Neuron Function Regulation.
The new method is expected to help prevent and more effectively treat neuroses and anxiety-depressive disorders by increasing stress resilience. It may also reduce the severity of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and prevent secondary complications. Additionally, it is designed to strengthen overall health and enhance cognitive functioning.
A solid evidence base will enable the introduction of hypoxic therapy into the healthcare system, including health centers and sanatoriums.
Innovations in Stress Management
The second project focuses on developing neurotechnology for diagnosing and correcting cognitive impairments and anxiety-depressive conditions using virtual and augmented environments.
“To implement this technology, a new medical device—a hardware-software system equipped with AI—will be developed. It will control the research process and the therapeutic training,” said Professor Yuri Shelepin, Doctor of Medical Sciences and scientific supervisor of the project.
The cognitive training immerses the patient in an interactive environment—such as “virtual cycling routes” or “sports orienteering.” Video content is combined with controlled physical activity on a stationary bicycle or treadmill. Movement is synchronized with the imagery and adjusted by AI based on the patient’s current psychophysiological indicators.
A key element of the methodology is the introduction of controlled perturbations: scenarios include “malfunctioning traffic lights,” which simulate uncertainty encountered in daily life. This enables specialists to identify individual decision-making characteristics comparable to I.P. Pavlov’s classifications of higher nervous activity.
For the first time, the method integrates precise diagnostics, personalized cognitive training, and continuous monitoring in a unified digital environment, helping form a “healthy dynamic stereotype.” Physical activity serves not only as a therapeutic tool but also as a general wellness factor.
Conclusion
The national project “New Technologies for Health Preservation” is ensuring that the most advanced Russian medical innovations become accessible to patients—improving treatment outcomes, strengthening disease prevention, and enhancing overall quality of life.
