Russian pharma market may face first decline since the beginning of 2000s

The growth of the Russian pharmaceutical market has almost come to a halt in recent years, which is mainly as a result of falling incomes of the local population, freezing of state budgets for public procurements and tightened governmental control over the prices for vital drugs in Russia, according to recent statements of some leading Russian drugmakers and officials of the Russian Ministry of Health, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

According to data of DSM Group, one of Russia’s leading analytics agencies in the field of pharmaceutics, over the past five years, the growth of the Russian pharmaceutical market has slowed down by six times. In 2018, its volume reached 1.7 trillion roubles (~$26 billion), which is only 1.8% higher than in 2017

For comparison, in 2017 the market grew by 8.2%, while during the period of 2010-2015 its annual growth rates were in the range of 16%-18%. For the current year, the growth of the market is expected to be even lower and will probably not exceed 1%.