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Tatyana Golikova wants to refute the price forecasts of pharmaceutical market experts
The Russian authorities intend to take control of the prices of all drugs on the market. The head of the department, Tatyana Golikova, spoke about this initiative of the Ministry of Health and Social Development yesterday at the government presidium. According to her, participants in the pharmaceutical market may not hope to compensate for losses resulting from the introduction of uniform trade markups for drugs from the list of vital and essential drugs (VED) by increasing prices for all other drugs. “Unfortunately, some market experts are predicting an increase in prices and are greatly heating up the situation in the second segment of the drug market in relation to drugs that are not included in the list of vital and necessary drugs. I appeal to all market participants to ensure that such expert assessments remain assessments, and nothing more,” said Ms. Golikova, making it clear that the authorities are already ready for total regulation of the drug market.Let us remind you that the government has obliged all manufacturers and importers of medicines to register maximum selling prices for their products included in the list of vital and essential drugs by April 1. For Russian manufacturers, the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare and Social Development (Roszdravnadzor) took as a basis the weighted average factory prices for the second half of 2009, for distributors importing imports - the price according to customs declarations for the same period. This was done to protect one of the most socially significant categories of goods from sharp price fluctuations in the future. At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, many manufacturers (mostly domestic) were outraged by the procedure for determining prices - according to them, the cost of substances in 2010 increased significantly compared to the previous year, which means that selling finished goods at the old prices are no longer profitable. But officials stubbornly stood their ground, and as a result, Tatyana Golikova reported yesterday to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that as of March 30, out of more than 6 thousand applications for registration received from manufacturers, 5526 had been approved. Negative decisions were made on 638 applications, according to Registration documents for 558 drugs were resubmitted. That is, the task was completed by officials of the Ministry of Health and Social Development and subordinate structures virtually 100%: they managed to “put the pressure on” the producers.
“Manufacturers have compromised on prices, firstly, in order to sell off existing inventory, and secondly, to gain time to discuss and adjust the current registration rules,” the general director of the Association of Russian Pharmaceuticals told Vremya Novostey. manufacturers (ARFP) Viktor Dmitriev. - Of course, no one will work at a loss. And if changes do not follow, manufacturers will abandon unprofitable drugs.” There are already such examples. For example, the company Dalkhimfarm LLC announced the cessation of production of 14 types of its products, the registered prices for which, according to businessmen, are below the level of profitability.
And there are a lot of such drugs, says Elena Nevolina, general director of the pharmacy chain association of the Pharmacy Guild, but many manufacturers are simply not ready to enter into open conflict with the authorities and have not yet made any statements. For pharmacies that find themselves in extreme positions in this situation (from today they do not have the right to sell drugs from the Vital and Essential Drugs list at a higher price than the registered price with the addition of a certain premium), it is already unbearable to remain silent. “Our association collected data from a huge number of pharmacies operating throughout the country,” Ms. Nevolina told Vremya Novostey. -- According to preliminary calculations, the losses of chain pharmacies from the withdrawal of drugs that were already purchased at prices higher than registered ones will range from 1 to 6 million rubles. depending on the size of the trading organization.”
It is worth noting that all “illiquid goods”, despite their good quality, will simply have to be disposed of, or, at best, returned to the distributor or manufacturer. True, both of them have the right not to take back their completely usable goods. “We are not going to take anything back, since changes in legislation cannot be considered force majeure,” answered Viktor Dmitriev on behalf of those most affected by the revaluation of domestic producers.
Representatives of pharmacy chains generally doubt the reliability of official data on the number of registered prices. “In the lists of drugs with a registered price, which are posted on the Roszdravnadzor website, the chains do not find many drugs from their range,” said Elena Nevolina. “So, one Trans-Ural pharmacy chain told us yesterday that they were missing 500 drugs, another from the Volga region - 600, and a well-known Moscow pharmacy chain does not know about the fate of 1,300 items.” Considering that the assortment of an average pharmacy includes about 5,000 items, the percentage of goods that fall into “unliquid stock” turns out to be quite significant.
If the state moves to total control over the prices of all medicines, then it will be incorrect to talk about the pharmaceutical market in general, representatives of the pharmaceutical community are sure. “We already had such experience in the Soviet Union. If we revive it, then the word “get” and not “buy” will certainly return with it, Mr. Dmitriev is sure. “For some reason they always say that we have pharmacies on every corner, but they don’t think that this only applies to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is enough to drive very close to the capitals and it turns out that in quite large cities you can count the number of pharmacies on one hand. And most of them operate with a 2% profit margin. With the introduction of total price regulation in the regions, out of every three pharmacies, two will close,” says the general director of the Pharmacy Guild.