Russia's anti-cancer market; impact of patent expiration

Global drugmakers and their Russian partners are losing their positions in the Russian market for anti-cancer drugs due to expiration of patent protection for a number of their drugs and their replacement by Russian-made generics, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

For example, Pharmstandard – one of Russia’s leading drugmakers which, since 2016, has been supplying one of the most expensive anti-cancer drugs Revlimid (lenalidomide), owned by the American major Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) for state needs will probably lose this market due to expiration of patent protection of the drug this summer.

So far, the Russian state has completed purchases of a number of generics of Revlimid produced by local drugmakers as a result of auctions, conducted on May. During these auctions, lenalidomide was purchased by 2-2.5 times less, compared to previous tenders. Its price was also reduced by another 0.5%-2.5% due to the large number of participants - from three to five bidders during the tenders. The price reduction and the admission of Russian manufacturers to tenders became possible due to the forthcoming expiration of the patent protection for lenalidomide, which is set on July 2022. Until this moment, generics cannot be put into the market.