DSM Group: the share of cheap medicinal analogues is decreasing in Russia

The DSM Group agency, which researches the pharmaceutical sector, has published a report on the decline in the market for vital and essential drugs (VED), the agency’s official website reports . According to experts, this could lead to the fact that the most affordable drugs will disappear from sale.

VEDs occupy a third of the Russian pharmaceutical market, and their prices are regulated by the state. Among them there are many cheap drugs, the cost of which does not exceed 50 rubles. In the first eight months of 2016, sales of these drugs in pharmacies amounted to 132 billion rubles, and their share was 35% of all pharmaceutical drugs (if counted in packages). However, these figures fell by 4.1% compared to the same period last year.

“Over the past year, there has been a noticeable increase in the average price of drugs from the Vital and Essential Drugs list,” commented Sergei Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group, on the results of the study. He also emphasized that if we consider drugs from the list costing less than 50 rubles, we can notice an increase in the average price by 4% compared to 2015. Now it is 24.7 rubles.

According to a published study, the most popular cheap drug in Russia is a solution of sodium chloride (table salt), which is used mainly for IVs. In addition, the list of the most popular drugs includes the sedative “Glycine” and the painkiller “Ketorol” (their price does not exceed 30 rubles).

Sergei Shulyak recalled that the government is discussing abandoning price regulation for cheap vital drugs. “In the near future, it is planned to abandon price regulation for Russian vital and essential medicines, the cost of which does not exceed 50 rubles. There is also a proposal to support pharmaceutical companies that produce these products with subsidies. Certain actions are necessary here, since otherwise the most accessible drugs are simply washed out of the market, and analogues cost the buyer much more,” Shulyak explained.

On October 7, 2016, the head of the main department for supervision over the implementation of the Federal Law of the Prosecutor General's Office, Anatoly Palamarchuk, said that cheap domestic medicines began to disappear on the Russian pharmaceutical market - they are being replaced by expensive imported analogues. An analysis by the prosecutor's office showed that the segment of inexpensive domestic drugs on the Russian market is shrinking. In many regions of the Russian Federation, pharmaceutical companies do not produce the established minimum range of drugs and often inflate the maximum premiums for drugs from the list of vital and essential drugs.