Anesthesia from abroad

Experts calculated what medicines the Russians spend the most money. The main drug of 2018, according to the results of the study, was Nurofen. In terms of the number of packages sold in Russian pharmacies, citimon and bactericidal patch are leading. Analysts note that the population prefers foreign manufacturers. At the same time, the industry participants say that it is more profitable for pharmacy networks to sell expensive foreign analogues than more affordable Russian medicines, so buyers often simply have no choice.

Over the past calendar year, more than five billion packages of medicines with a total value of about 991.9 billion rubles were sold in Russian pharmacies, RBC reports with reference to the DSM Group study. Despite the fact that analgesics prevail in the rating of drugs on the names, almost twenty percent of the market hold drugs for the treatment of diseases of the digestive system. They lead in popularity by a large margin from the next group-drugs for the cardiovascular system. At the same time, for a year in a row, Russians spend the most money on painkillers.

Nurofen / YouTube.com

“There is another significant point: we must understand that now we have a dominance of pharmacology. Even many doctors are talking about this. That is, now we are taught not to treat doctors, but to recommend funds to maintain the body in a working state for some time. Now I bring the child to the doctor - and I see the entire list of drugs whose advertisements are on federal television channels, ” commented the creator of the Public Scientific Academy of Strategic Design Vladimir Khrykov.

The absolute leader in ruble sales (7.5 billion rubles in 2018) for the second year in a row becomes the drug Nurofen British Reckitt Benckiser Group. “Nurofen is used not only as anesthetic, but also as an antipyretic and has a children's form, which brings him additional sales,” explains Sergey Shulyak, General Director of DSM Group. At the same time, he emphasizes that the recognition of the brand and a large advertising budget plays an important role here. Nurofen’s popularity corresponds to world trends, drugs based on the active substance of ibuprofen in the top of sales around the world.

Children's Hospital / MSKAGENCY.RU

According to the DSM Group study, foreign drugs in monetary equivalent occupy a stable leading position in the domestic market - they account for 70% of the cost of all the drugs sold. But the Executive Director of the Russian Association of Pharmacy Networks Nelly Ignatieva believes that it is necessary to take into account the total cost of the drugs sold, but the number of packages. Here, domestic products are ahead of foreign in a ratio of more than 60% by 30%. The most popular drug in this parameter was a bactericidal patch, the second place is citramon. Its components - paracetamol and acetylsalicylic acid - are also in the top by the number of packages. “Foreign drugs do not dominate, we just spend three times more on them,” Ignatieva believes.

The National Association of Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Products (ACF) believe that Russian manufacturers are faced with discrimination from pharmacies, which are more profitable to sell more expensive foreign drugs. “Today, the drug market has the following established trends: in the pharmacy segment, the proportion of foreign manufacturers is invariably high and accounts for 70% in value terms,”said the President of the ACE, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergey Ivanovich Kolesnikov. “This indicator has not changed for the past ten years.”

Medicines / AGN "Moscow" / Photo: Mazenov Pavel

In the top-tenge of pharmaceutical companies that earned the most in the Russian market in 2018 at pharmacy sales-only one domestic, Otisifarm, it occupies the sixth line. This is all alarming among representatives of the industry and makes them say that a decrease in the availability of drugs jeopardizes the life and health of millions of citizens. At the same time, the study shows that the prices of vital and most important drugs over the past year have not changed, their growth was less than one percent. But they are controlled by the state, so the problem still remains. Now this issue is under control by Vice Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who oversees the social block.