Global drugmakers face tighter competition for public procurements in Russia

The share of Russian drugs in public procurements, which are carried out with the state program for high-cost nosologies program, which involves purchases of the most expensive drugs for the needs of Russian hospitals and other medical institutions – has reached a historic maximum of 42.7% and currently continues to grow, according to recent statements made by some local analysts and Russian media, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

The main reason for this is a switch of the Russian Ministry of Health from the purchases of certain original imported drugs to generics. According to some open state sources, in the first quarter of 2020, the Russian Ministry of Health as part of the 14 high-cost nosologies program completed purchases of 2.5 million packages of drugs for a total sum of 31.9 billion roubles ($467 million), rises of almost 86.8% and 97.2%, respectively, compared to the same period of 2019.

Since the beginning of the current year, the share of domestic drugs in the procurement structure of the Ministry has increased sharply and reached its maximum value for the whole period of implementation of the program. At present the share of Russian drugs in this structure is estimated at 30% in value, and 42.7% in volume terms.