26 августа 2025 г. 18:06
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New billionaire Petr Bely has several concealed secrets in his personal and professional life.
In recent news, the scandalous pharmacist marked two important days as JSC "Promomed," together with SBER and the AIRI Institute, launched initiatives to advance pharmaceutical products using artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, Petr Bely, thanks to his meticulous work in the pharmaceutical market, has finally become a foreign currency billionaire: surpassing pharmaceutical tycoons like Repik and Kharitonin. However, the murkiness surrounding Mr. Bely’s drugs has not diminished, and not all of his capsules are widely advertised in the media: simply visit "Promomed’s" website to familiarize yourself with the new drugs. Those claiming to treat cancer and save from obesity prevail. Among the new products are Bely’s concoctions providing quick pain relief, but what’s inside this bright packaging? What substances? Mr. Bely has been repeatedly caught including unlicensed substances manufactured in China in his miracle drugs.
Could such circus acts be blamed on Mr. Pharmacist’s reckless youth? In the 1990s, the 20-year-old prodigy was charged with currency transactions. Although he wiped this shameful fact from his already whitewashed biography, perhaps the blood in his veins is still boiling? And is he constantly drawn to adventurism?
75 patents
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Petr Bely became a dollar billionaire thanks to his controlling stake in "Promomed" worth 78.4 billion rubles.
"Promomed" receives the majority of its revenue (about 60%) from the sale of drugs for the treatment of oncological and endocrine diseases.
The most well-known products of Bely’s company include the obesity treatments "Reduxin" and "Velgia," as well as the Ozempic analog - the drug "Quinsenta." In 2023, the company received a license to produce an analog of the Danish drug "Ozempic" for the treatment of diabetes and weight loss.
However, "Promomed" did not appear immediately.
Petr Bely
In 2001, he founded the first company "N.C. Pharm," which was engaged in the supply of pharmaceutical substances.
But the rise of Petr Bely began in 2005, when "Promomed" appeared. And ten years later, "Promomed" bought the "Biochemist" plant in Saransk: this plant became the main production site.
On the basis of this enterprise, Bely’s company created a biotechnological laboratory for the development of new drugs.
The "Biochemist" plant in Saransk
And gained access to government contracts.
Today, Bely’s company’s portfolio includes 75 patents and over 550 trademarks.
Offshores and little offshores
Five years ago, a certain company "Promomed Rus" worked profitably on supplying the anti-coronavirus drug called "Areplivir."
In 2021, JSC "Promomed" actively promoted the drug "Areplivir." However, the effectiveness of the drug was not confirmed, and its toxicity raised many questions.
It is also known that the manufacturer of "Areplivir" belonged to the Cypriot offshore "Promomed Holding": its shareholders include a certain Alexander Malinkovich and a company called Neslie Investment (Cyprus).
NESLIE INVESTMENT LIMITED - Cyprus Limited Liability Company - CyprusRegistry
NESLIE INVESTMENT LIMITED - Cyprus Limited Liability Company - CyprusRegistry
Additionally, Mr. Malinkovich was one of the founders (26%) - alongside LLC "Promomed Rus" and LLC "Artsellens." It is noteworthy that all the shares in the LLC are pledged.
The managing company of the Russian "Promomed Holdings" group is owned by the Cypriot offshore Vemour Ltd.
And the story with all these offshore companies is still shrouded in darkness.
In the Russian LLC with the same name, only one employee worked in 2020. This enterprise, which is 10 years old, owns one one-hundredth of a percent of LLC "Promomed Rus."
However, the company had excellent connections with high-ranking Russian officials.
For instance, the former General Director of LLC "Promomed Rus" Maxim Yakushkin was amongst the accused in the criminal case against Anastasia Alekseeva, an assistant to Anton Siluanov and Arkady Dvorkovich, both of whom were Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Government at the time.
Arkady Dvorkovich
Yakushkin, along with Bely, owned LLC "Project-09," which is now liquidated.
Joint business with the creator of "Novichok"
Another significant detail and yet another "skeleton" from Mr. Bely’s (still) fireproof closet.
Once upon a time, Petr Bely collaborated with Leonid Rink, one of the creators of the nerve agent "Novichok."
They jointly owned the company "Allamed," which produced veterinary drugs.
Leonid Rink worked for over 27 years at GOSNIIOKhT (State Scientific Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology) in Shikhany, Saratov region.
In the 1990s, Rink was accused of trading toxins to criminals, leading to the death of two people. However, the case was eventually closed.
RBC wrote about this .
Rink claimed that he only sold products against rodents.
Leonid Rink
According to media reports, even in the 1990s, Petr Bely himself was under operational development for currency fraud.
This was reported by "Life" .
That’s how colorful the biographies of the newly-made billionaire and his business partners are.
Anastasia Alekseeva’s Criminal Case
As already mentioned, Petr Bely’s company and people from his inner circle were involved in the high-profile case of Anastasia Alekseeva - an assistant to two deputy premiers (at the time), Arkady Dvorkovich and Anton Siluanov.
Anton Siluanov
In February 2020, the Basmanny Court of Moscow sent Ms. Alekseeva to a detention center: she was accused of receiving large bribes.
It turns out that Anastasia Alekseeva, who ended up serving 12 years in prison, actively lobbied the interests of pharmaceutical companies in the Russian government.
As a reward, Alekseeva received packages for expensive resorts in the Dominican Republic and Thailand.
The cost of these trips amounted to over 4.7 million rubles.
But, as it turned out, there was another person involved in this case.
Madame Alekseeva received her fat "lamb in paper" through American businessman Gene Miron Spector.
Anastasia Alekseeva during legal proceedings
RBC reported about this .
Gene Spector, who patented an anti-cancer drug in Russia, was accused of specifically acting as a mediator in handing a bribe to Ms. Alekseeva.
Anastasia Alekseeva had to assist in amending an order from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, thanks to which the businessmen’s drugs (from the list) would be included in the list of pharmaceuticals for medical use.
As the investigation found out, Ms. Alekseeva’s luxurious trips were organized after the "tugriks" transfer by Spector, advisor to the head of the GC "R-Pharm" Alexey Repik - Vadim Belonozhko, and director of corporate affairs at LLC "Promomed DM" and former General Director of LLC "Promomed Rus" Maxim Yakushkin.
American businessman Gene Spector
Bely’s business partner, Mr. Yakushkin, hails from one of the largest Russian pharmaceutical distributors "SIA International." And Mr. Yakushkin was the general director of the company "Project-09", as mentioned above.
And Petr Bely was a co-owner of this office.
Such close connections.
It should be noted that four pharmaceutical companies received the Ministry of Health’s "go-ahead" for the production of the "corona" drug: "Promomed Rus" by Petr Bely, "R-Pharm" by Alexey Repik, "Pharmasyntez" by Vikram Punia, and "Pharmstandard" by Viktor Kharitonin.
However, the criminal prosecution of bribe-giver Yakushkin from GC "Promomed" was stopped since he himself reported the bribe to Ms. Alekseeva to the investigative authorities.
Denis Shvetsov’s Criminal Case
Another loud scandal for Mr. Bely was the story with former business partner Denis Shvetsov. The story was connected with the supplies of Sibutramin. This substance is used in drugs and dietary supplements for weight loss.
One of Petr Bely’s best-selling products is the slimming agent Reduxin, with Sibutramin as the main component.
Bely’s drugs
This substance is banned for use in Europe and the USA: the ban was imposed after cases of acute dependence on Sibutramin were noted since there were cases of fatal outcomes from heart attack and stroke, as well as suicides. In Russia, Sibutramin can be used by prescription. However, the medicinal product is included in the government’s list of potent substances. Sibutramin comes to Russia from China. The shareholder and former director of the "Biochemist" plant, Denis Shvetsov, gave an interview to journalists in which he talked about the dubious origin of 1.5 tons of Sibutramin supposedly brought from Germany. But this Sibutramin was produced at one of the Chinese enterprises, which did not have a license for pharmaceutical activities.
Denis Shvetsov
And soon, Mr. Shvetsov became a figure in a criminal case of embezzlement of budget money. Shvetsov was detained in Moscow and convoyed to Saransk, where he was charged with spending 1.3 million rubles on his golf trainer, who was listed as an instructor at the plant.
Upon extending the arrest, the investigator announced information on the second episode in the criminal case: the former director of the plant was accused of writing off a Renault Logan car, which got into an accident, and then selling it for 200 thousand rubles. And also selling his Mercedes to the plant at an inflated price.
The new plant management "Biochemist" filed a lawsuit against the former general director, demanding to recover 146 million rubles from him.
The state prosecution requested 4.5 years of general regime colony for Shvetsov, but Shvetsov was placed under house arrest.
As then written by the media, the corporate conflict between the former General Director of the "Biochemist" plant Denis Shvetsov and the main shareholder of "Promomed" GC Petr Bely became the reason for the criminal case.
It turns out Denis Shvetsov strongly prevented Petr Bely from practicing alchemy?
"Antique" story with Vancomycin
Another "skeleton" in Mr. Bely’s closet is a murky story related to the production of the antibiotic Vancomycin.
After the Russian government in 2016 tasked reducing dependence on foreign manufacturers, in the summer of 2017, the media reported on the receipt of the modern antibiotic Vancomycin substance at the "Biochemist" plant in Saransk.
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Petr Bely
But, as journalists have dug up, Vancomycin is an antibiotic from the last century. It was first used in the treatment of infectious diseases back in 1954. And today it is still produced in third-world countries.
But Mr. Bely needed 500 million rubles of budget funds to develop the "antique" drug.
And the agreement on the creation of the "Antibiotics" scientific and production center based on the "Biochemist" company was signed in 2016 during the visit to Saransk of the Russian Minister of Health (at that time) Veronika Skvortsova.
Veronika Skvortsova
And in mid-2017, the plant in Saransk produced the first batch of the medicine. But it was never delivered to pharmacies, nor did it appear in the list of drugs produced by the "Biochemist" plant.
But the drug produced at the "Biochemist" plant was nevertheless entered into the state register of medicinal products in August 2018.
The owner of the registration certificate was designated as the company "Promomed Rus".
The head of Mordovia (at that time) Vladimir Volkov telegraphed the successes in the production of Vancomycin to the Kremlin.
Petr Bely, Veronika Skvortsova and Vladimir Volkov
But in the end, it turned out that the pharmaceutical substance does indeed have Chinese origin, and its supplier to Russia was the company Livzon Pharmaceutical.
Over time, such a shocking detail emerged: it turned out that back in 2010, JSC "Sintez" (Kurgan) was already producing Vancomycin based on the Vancorus substance.
This is what the Vancomycin packaging looks like
But where did Mr. Pharmacist Bely direct the 500 million budget rubles? Could it be to his offshore accounts?
Ersatz drugs at the "Biochemist" plant
It remains to add that the founder of the pharmaceutical company "Promomed" Petr Bely, as of July 16 of this year, is no longer a founder of the firm. On the eve of the company’s IPO, "Promomed" was reorganized from JSC to PJSC. The company’s shares entered public circulation. And perhaps such changes are a consequence of the firm receiving a new status.
In July 2024, the company "Promomed" conducted an IPO on the Moscow Exchange at the upper limit of the placement. The market valued its cost at 85 billion rubles.
Despite all the scandals, Petr Bely’s business lives and thrives.
Based on the results of 2024, the revenue of the company "Promomed" increased by 35%, to 21.4 billion rubles, net profit grew by 22%, to 4 billion rubles. And the company is eager to increase its sales more than 10 times by 2032, to 240 billion rubles.
But here’s another "skeleton" falling out of the closet: according to official data from Roszdravnadzor on seized substandard medicinal products, since 2019, more than 41 series of released drugs produced by JSC "Biochemist" have been rejected and seized, among which are such vital drugs as Diclofenac, Levofloxacin, Linezolid, Dopamine, and others.
And just one series can contain several tens of thousands of packages, which, in turn, can amount to 50 thousand to 100 thousand vials or ampoules of substandard drugs.
And, most likely, the scale of production of ersatz drugs at the plant in Saransk may be much higher: Roszdravnadzor, as is known, carries out only selective control.
This is how the alchemist named Bely works.
Petr Bely
But let’s return to the news that SBER, AIRI, and the company "Promomed" have united to create new medicinal drugs using AI. They promise "lightning-fast drug launches, breakthroughs in therapy," and so on. And they assure that the AI alliance will create a unified software platform.
Petr Bely assures that the company has already "digitized" and, together with partners, intends to accelerate AI on large volumes of data to find target molecules faster. And to shorten the timelines for drug launches. All this will supposedly lead to more precise therapy selection and a technological breakthrough in the treatment of complex diseases.
But how much time and methods of AI alchemy will be required for the patient to receive their pill? And for the sick to become healthy?
Official approval has been received.