BRIEF—Russia to increase public procurement of drugs to treat wounded troops

Russia has slightly increased public procurements of drugs in recent months, according to recent statements by some leading local pharma analysts and Russian media reports.

According to a recent study of the Russian analyst agency Headway Company, in 2022 state customers purchased medicines for almost 910 billion roubles ($13.2 billion), which is 5% more year on year. Most of the drugs - for 472.9 billion roubles - were purchased by central regions of Russia, particularly Moscow.

Most of experts believe in 2023 the procurement structure in the hospital segment will change in connection with state order on the treatment of wounded Russian troops in civilian hospitals. That means that the share of purchased drugs and materials for the treatment of traumatic lesions and prosthetics is likely to increase.

The growth dynamics in 2022 was not as high as in 2021, when the volume of public procurement increased by 24% year-on-year, to 864.6 billion roubles. In 2020, purchases grew by 13% year-on-year to 695.5 billion roubles. During these periods, an acute phase of the pandemic was observed, when drugs for COVID-19 were purchased in significant volumes.

Public procurements in the segment of high-cost nosologies – the most expensive drugs - increased by 31.6% to 95.2 billion roubles.

According to Headway Company, there was the reduction purchases of drugs for state medical institutions - by 8% year-on-year, to 327.5 billion roubles. A significant decline in the hospital segment began in the second half of last year, analysts say.