Russian President calls for reform of national drugs procurement system

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has instructed the national government to consider the possibility of reforming the current system of state purchases of drugs in Russia, according to recent statements of the press-service of the Russian Presidential Administration, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

As part of these plans, a single platform for public procurements of drugs will be established.

To date, the Russian government has already started reforming the national system of public procurements in the field of pharmaceuticals. That means, starting from July 1 of this year, state purchases of drugs in Russia are having to use weighted average prices for similar drugs’ categories, while effective from January 1, 2019 the use of reference prices for certain categories of drugs will be introduced.