An experiment on remote sale of prescription drugs began in Russia

In Russia, an experiment began on the remote sale of prescription drugs. True, so far only residents of Belgorod and its suburbs can order the delivery of such drugs. The first pharmacy chain to receive permission from Roszdravnadzor and launch online sales of prescription drugs in this region was Sber Eapteka, its representative told Vedomosti. Earlier, Irina Krupnova, Head of the Department for Licensing and Controlling Compliance with the Mandatory Requirements of Roszdravnadzor, spoke about this at the Pharmacy Summit.

The three-year experiment on the delivery of prescription drugs was supposed to start on March 1 and end in 2026. In addition to the Belgorod region, it will take place in Moscow and the Moscow region. 904 international generic names of medicines are available for online sale, with the exception of narcotic and psychotropic substances, vaccines, antidepressants, abortion pills, etc., follows from the text of the order of the Ministry of Health.

In Belgorod, in order to place an online order for a prescription drug, the buyer must receive an electronic prescription from the attending physician in advance, a representative of Sber Eapteki said. Next, you need to find a medicine on the website or in the pharmacy application and add it to the cart, after which the service will offer the buyer to go through authorization or give his consent to automatically verify his data with the register of prescriptions in the regional Unified State Health Information System. If the e-prescription is found, the buyer can proceed to checkout the delivery. The order will be able to receive both the client, in whose name the prescription is issued, and the person with a power of attorney from him. The courier will need to show an identity document, said a representative of the pharmacy chain.

Sber Eapteka is also preparing to launch remote sale of prescription drugs as part of an experiment in Moscow and the Moscow Region, a company representative said, without specifying the timing. Now, pharmacies belonging to the Erkapharm group, in particular Samson-Pharma, have also submitted documents to participate in the pilot project in the capital, according to the official website of the Moscow Health Department.

The Rigla pharmacy chain (part of the Protek Group of Companies) is at the final stage of joining the project, a company representative said. Pharmacy Chain 36.6 is also submitting documents and has already completed the technical integration to the system used for the experiment. A request to Roszdravnadzor on the timing of the issuance of permits for pharmacies in Moscow and the Moscow region remained unanswered.

The DSM Group estimated the market for online sales of over-the-counter drugs in 2022 at 194.3 billion rubles, which is 1.5 times more than the previous year. At the same time, the share of distance selling medicines in the total turnover of the pharmacy market increased from 8.6% to 11.6% last year. The highest rates are in Moscow (21.1%), Primorsky Krai (20.2%), St. Petersburg (18%) and Sevastopol (16.8%).