Russia is facing new shortages of drugs for rare diseases

Russia may face a new wave of drugs’ shortages, particularly those, which are used for the treatment of rare diseases, as sanctions continue to bite, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

As part of this, recently the Russian Ministry of Healthcare Center reported a disruption in supplies of Trileksa - a drug for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. The drug is produced by the Argentinian company Tuteur, being an analogue of the original drug Trikafta (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor) from the US drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX).

It is reported that the current supplies of Trileksa to Russia is twice times lower initially planned amount, which poses a threat of its shortage in some regions of the country. As the current situation continues to deteriorate, several days ago the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office began investigation of the reason of supplies’ disruptions.