Russian Parliament to allow unregistered imports of some drugs

The Russian Parliament (State Duma) is considering adopting a bill allowing unregistered imports of some types of drugs into Russia, reports the Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

According to Mikhail Serdyuk, a member of the Duma and one of the authors of the new initiative, the Russian Parliament plans to allow import of drugs, designed for the treatment of rare diseases which are not produced by domestic drugmakers.

According to data from the Russian Ministry of Health, at present there are about 300,000 people in Russia, who suffer from orphan (rare) diseases. However, the domestic market for drugs that treat rare diseases remains small, while the share of local production is only 27% of the overall market.

Part of the state plans is to allow imports of unregistered drugs for personal purposes, as well as purposes of a particular patient (in the case of presence of a statement from a particular medical institution of the Russian Ministry of Health).

Among the drugs of which imports to Russia might be allowed without registration are Estratsit, (a drug, designed for the treatment of prostate cancer); Tibon (for the treatment of thyroid cancer; Kolhikum-Dispert (for the treatment of gout) and some others.