Translated material
Collective sedative
Pharmacy warehouses promise to fill with discounted medicines until December 25
Yesterday, all the most important domestic medical officials gathered to announce the dates for government auctions for the purchase of expensive drugs. Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development Vladimir Starodubov, Head of the Federal Agency for Health and Social Development (Roszdrav) Yuri Belenkov, Head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Health and Social Development (Roszdravnadzor) Nikolay Yurgel and Head of the Department for Control of Public Order Placement Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) Mikhail Evraev confirmed that the auction for the so-called “expensive” will be held for two days - November 26 and 27. The pharmaceutical market has been waiting for this message with great impatience, since there is only a month left to hold competitions and subsequent shipment of drugs to the regions.The head of Roszdrav, Yuri Belenkov, clarified that based on the results of the bidding, contracts with the state will be concluded for a period of six months, in total it is planned to purchase 18 drugs worth 15 billion 379 million rubles. It is planned to draw 59 lots. To date, 73 applications have been submitted from 17 participants, including only one from a domestic manufacturer.
Let us remind you that such auctions are being held for the first time, since only this year it was decided to allocate drugs for the seven most “expensive” nosologies for the budget from the general list of drugs purchased by the state under the additional drug supply program (DLO). This had to be done, since almost a quarter of the program’s budget in 2006 - a shock to the number of free tablets issued - fell on just a few tens of thousands of beneficiaries with rare chronic diseases. But in total there were about 15 million people in the country at that time who were entitled to receive preferential medications.
According to the Pension Fund, 5 million people have already agreed to receive a social package next year; the rest of the beneficiaries preferred cash compensation. It is clear that in most cases money is chosen by relatively healthy people who do not require expensive medications. But seriously ill people are completely dependent on government drug provision. Therefore, the ratio of sick and relatively healthy in the DLO in 2008 promised to be ruinous for the program. To save the situation, the most costly patients had to be allocated to a separate federal program with funding of 33 billion rubles, and the care of everyone else had to be entrusted to the regions and given approximately 27 billion rubles for everything. With this money, local authorities must provide for all beneficiaries by independently selecting suppliers and organizing logistics at the local level. Those who do not meet the amount allocated by the center are asked to add funds from the local budget. And since most regions in Russia do not have a surplus budget, they will most likely have nothing to add.
Taking into account the latter circumstance, the Ministry of Health and Social Development decided to leave citizens whose medications are especially expensive on full federal benefits. We are talking about multiple sclerosis, myeloid leukemia, hemophilia, Gaucher disease (hereditary metabolic disorder), cystic fibrosis, pituitary dwarfism (growth retardation). Patients undergoing treatment after organ transplantation will also receive medications from the federal budget. But, oddly enough, analysts of the pharmaceutical market believe that a suspiciously large amount of money was allocated for this part of the beneficiaries, which means that others were deprived. “33 billion rubles. - this is three times more than in 2007, and one and a half times more than in 2006, which was prosperous in terms of drug supply. Where did this amount come from if there are basically no more beneficiaries in this category?” - Alexander Kuzin, general director of the marketing company DSM Group, was perplexed in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent. According to his calculations, while there will be an excess of funds in the expensive drug program, there will be catastrophically little money in the “DLO for All” program.
But, as it became clear during yesterday’s event, officials are confident that this time they calculated everything correctly. After all, the parameters of the lots were determined by the applications of the regions. According to the head of Roszdravnadzor, Nikolai Yurgel, most regions take a responsible and professional approach to organizing auction procedures and adhere to the established procedure for the formation of lots. The starting price will be determined by customers based on the July minimum prices for medicines registered with Roszdravnadzor and included in the DLO list. Announcements of auctions for the supply of medicines for the first half of 2008 were officially published by 86 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
In turn, Yuri Belenkov partially confirmed Mr. Kuzin’s fears, suggesting that surpluses cannot be avoided in the “expensive” program. But the head of Roszdrav assesses this fact with the opposite sign. In his opinion, excess funds may arise during the bidding, since the winners will be those suppliers who offer the lowest price. And the released funds will also be used for additional purchases of medicines for seriously ill patients, which will increase the volume of purchases.
There is no need to worry because, officials assured, that during the bidding, abuses are completely excluded. Applications from participants will be considered by a special competition commission, which includes authorized representatives of all federal districts, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Roszdravnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosprom, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Roszdrav. They will also ensure that the auction winners deliver the first batches of medicines to authorized regional warehouses by December 25 of this year. But in January, regional authorities will still be responsible for the uninterrupted supply of medicines to specific patients, federal officials especially emphasized.