Russia's Biocad to slash prices for strategically important drugs

Russia’s largest biotech firm Biocad has sent a package of documents for re-registration of the price of a number of vital medicines down by 50% to 91%.

Under these proposals, Russian medicine for serious diseases will become almost five-six times cheaper than the original drugs, and the state budget will be able to save over 1 billion roubles ($16.9 million), which can be spent on additional treatment of patients.

A group of high-tech reproduced drugs is falling under the cost reduction: imatinib (a decrease of 87%-91%), bortezomib (86%), glatiramer acetate (73%) and darunavir (50%). These are effective drugs for the treatment of severe diseases such as chronic myelogenous leukemia, gastrointestinal cancer, multiple myeloma, multiple sclerosis and HIV.