Foreign drugmakers may bear huge losses in Russia due to bureaucratic hurdles

A significant part of vital drugs may disappear from the Russian market during the next several months as, due to Russian bureaucracy, many foreign drugmakers will be forced to suspend further sales of their drugs in the Russian market, according to an official spokesman of the Russian Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, a public association, which unites leading foreign drugmakers, operating in the Russian market.

The main problem is associated with those foreign drugmakers, which have recently completed the transfer of drug production from one site to another and which resulted in the change of the data on their production sites, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

In accordance with the current Russian legislation, the change of production site of vital drugs, (which are imported into Russia) is associated with the need of re-registration of these drugs in the Russian national registry of vital drugs. However, due to current conflict between the Russian Ministry of Health and the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, foreign drugmakers do not have an opportunity to re-register their drugs in Russia, which results in their inability to continue their further sales.