VISTERRA COMPANY PRESENTATION (IN ENGLISH)

Visterra (“Vis terra”) stands for “the power of the earth” in Latin. The Enterprise is engaged in high-level processing of different types of natural raw materials and producing of solid and dry extracts and therapeutic products on its base – products that have a positive physiological effect on the human body, contribute to the normalization of the functioning of organs and systems (gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, hepatobiliary, etc). Visterra is the most advanced organization in Russia in terms of development and implementation of innovative technologies for processing various types of natural raw materials. The enterprise was the first one in Russia to organize the processing of raw materials at the site of its harvesting and growing. It is the only one in Russia that carries out the processing of fresh plant raw materials and manufacturing of finished products. The significant part of the raw material is grown on its own plantations.

Company Ideology and Mission

The ideology of the company is based on the understanding of the significance of using folk medicine together with health care products. According to the opinion of the experts of the World Health Organization, the approximate ratio of various factors of ensuring the health of modern man is determined by the following ratio:

Genetic factors – 15÷20% (20% in Russia).
Environmental conditions – 20÷25% (20%).
Medical provision – 10÷15% (7÷8%).
Living conditions and lifestyle – 50÷55% (52÷53%).

The costs of these health ensuring factors are inversely proportional to their significance. It’s unfair to downplay the role of medicine with its real achievements in surgery and fighting contagious disease. But the declared achievements of pharmacology are greatly exaggerated, they are quite modest in reality. Pharmacology has not been able to significantly reduce the burden of the majority of the most common chronic diseases. Despite all the new advances in medical science, number of unresolved issues is constantly increasing, more and more people are suffering, less and less of newborns are healthy, long-forgotten “defeated” diseases are coming back and completely new ones are emerging. Most drugs are ineffective, unsafe and expensive; more than 90% of them works only in 30–50% of patients.

With the modest contribution of medicine to human health in Russia, its role is artificially exaggerated by diminishing and restraining the influence of other factors such as the use of supplements and functional and specialized food products, the use of folk medicine and folk health care products, preventive health care and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle.

Having a history of thousands of years and based on the use of plant raw materials, folk medicine for some reason is called non-traditional medicine. By comparison, synthetic pharmaceuticals, many of which are just an hour old and which do not have the traditions of application, are the part of traditional medicine. The correct names of health products are given in China – traditional Chinese pharmacons. The Chinese government supports the health-improving industry, specialized universities and specialized departments have been established.

In Russia, medicinal plant breeding is almost destroyed and, accordingly, the production of plant-based preparations and health products based on plant raw materials is insignificant. Medicinal plant breeding and processing of raw materials are not included in the register of activities of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Economic Development. It is not included in Russian Classification of Economic Activities. There is no a corresponding specialty in agriculture universities.

While treatment with herbs and preparations on their basis is preferred by more than half of Americans and Germans. Every second American takes medications on the basis of medicinal plant material daily. In USA, about 80% of the population consumes supplements, in European countries – about 50%, in Japan – up to 90% and less than 10% – in Russia. The production of functional food is a rapidly growing segment of food industry. In Japan, more than 50% of food products are functional foods. The main functional components are substances extracted from plant raw materials.

A paradoxical situation has arisen: instead of a large-scale export of eco-friendly raw materials and food products, exports of eco-friendly substances for health products which are several times more expensive abroad than those without a green passport, we are importing “broiler” vegetables, fruits, medicinal plant raw materials and substances on their basis, creating a barrier to domestic production of eco-friendly products.

Movement against common sense always brings to a dead-lock. The situation will be inevitably changing, Russia is destined to be a global exporter of eco-friendly foods and substances for health products. Through its activities, Visterra brings this time closer. Visterra is one of the pioneers and an active member of the Association of Producers and Consumers of Traditional Herbal Medicines, created in 2016 (herbmed2035.com). The enterprise is a figurant of the Preventive Medicine section of the HealthNet Roadmap (health network) approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. The Visterra company has developed the Project for the creation of the Scientific and Educational Agricultural and Technological Park in the form of a public-private partnership with participation of majoring educational and scientific institutions of the Siberian Federal District. This means that Visterra not only produces substances and health products based on natural raw materials, but does a great job of reviving the field of medicinal plant breeding in Russia and changing the status of health products. We see a great future for Russia in this Projects, we are bringing us closer to this point. This is the Mission of Visterra.

Visterra is a step into the future.