Russian patients call on state to expand public procurements of certain vital drugs

The All-Russian Union of Patients (VSP) has called on Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tatyana Golikova, to expand the list of drugs that are the subject of public procurements in the country in order to avoid a shortage of certain categories of drugs in the domestic market, The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent reports.

According to the VSP, it is important to expand this list by the inclusion of certain oncological and oncohematological drugs and at least genetically engineered biological drugs.

Analysts at the VSP and other Russian experts in the field of pharmaceutics believe implementation of these plans will allow the prevention of shortages of certain drugs similar to those that have been recently observed in the case of a drug with the active ingredient glatiramer acetate. It is recommended for treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis, while recently the authorities of at least 8 Russian regions have reported about the existing shortage of such drugs.