Global drugmakers continue to cut clinical trial presence in Russia

Global drugmakers operating in Russia have almost completely suspended clinical trials of their new original drugs in the local market, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

This is confirmed by official statistics of Association of Clinical Trial Organizations (AOKI), which shows that January-June of the current year, the Russian Ministry of Health issued only seven permits for international multicenter clinical trials to foreign companies and one more to the Russian Biocad. This is 13.9 times less year-on-year basis.

Most of this type of research precedes the launch of foreign original drugs to the market. Foreign companies are required to conduct tests on Russian patients for their subsequent registration. After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, global drugmakers, including Novartis (NOVN: VX), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Roche (ROG: SIX) and Sanofi, announced suspension of new studies in Russia and the end of recruitment of new patients.