Russian government to increase procurement of high-priced drugs

The Russian government will allocate additional 23 billion roubles ($305 million) for the procurements of high-priced imported drugs as part of 14 high-cost nosologies (VZN) state program, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent. Most of these funds will be allocated from the procurements scheduled already for 2023–2024.

As part of these plans, the government intends to increase purchases of drugs for the treatment of hemophilia, oncohematological diseases and multiple sclerosis. The budget for 2022 includes 46 billion roubles for the treatment of these three diseases, which is almost 70% of the total funding of 14 VZN program this year.

The main drug suppliers for 14 VZNs program in 2022 became local drugmakers Pharmstandard, Pharmimex and R-Pharm. It is planned that the same companies will also receive contracts for the supplies of drugs as part of additional planned tenders.