Checkered tablets – Newspaper Kommersant No. 15 (7460) dated 01/27/2023

Purchases of medicines for medical institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service doubled in 2022. Such dynamics turned out to be much higher than that of state order operators who purchase medicines for oncology clinics or tuberculosis dispensaries. However, experts believe that this will not improve the quality of medical care in places of deprivation of liberty, since funding for drug costs in this segment has not increased for several years, and last year’s growth was ensured by the low base of 2021.

For the whole of 2022, the cost of medicines for medical institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) amounted to almost 2 billion rubles, which is twice as much year on year, calculated at the Headway Company at the request of Kommersant. From these data it follows that last year’s expenses of the Federal Penitentiary Service are not so high in the total amount of state funds allocated for drug provision, but in none of the segments of public procurement did the dynamics grow as much as in the medical institutions of the penitentiary system.

For comparison: at oncology clinics, which occupy the largest share in state tenders – 39%, purchases increased by 10% year-on-year, to 145 billion rubles, from tuberculosis dispensaries – by 6%, to almost 15 billion rubles.

Lyudmila Balandina, head of the strategic development department at Headway Company, explains the noticeable increase in purchases for the Federal Penitentiary Service in 2022 by the low base of the previous period. In 2021, drugs were purchased for 976.55 million rubles, which is 3.4 times less than a year earlier. The expert does not exclude that the reason for this is the redistribution of part of the funds pledged for the Federal Penitentiary Service for 2021 to public procurement in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic required an increase in public procurement for the Federal Penitentiary Service at the expense of the future budget in 2020, explains Nikolay Bespalov, RNC Pharma Development Director. As a result, according to analysts, the costs in this segment in 2020 reached 3.36 billion rubles, which is a record amount in the period from 2018 to 2022.

It follows from the Headway Company data that in 2020 the Federal Penitentiary Service purchased the most funds for HIV: dolutegravir for 415 million rubles, lopinavir + ritonavir for 332.5 million rubles. Later, systemic antimicrobials came to the fore, accounting for nearly 60% of total drug purchases in 2022. So, last year 207 million rubles. spent on aminosalicylic acid, used in tuberculosis. In 2021, about 173.4 million rubles. spent on the anti-tuberculosis drug bedaquiline and 148 million rubles on the antibiotic linezolid.

In 2020, when medical facilities of the Federal Penitentiary Service were supplied with HIV drugs in large volumes, the service itself was directly involved in procurement. A year later, these functions were again transferred to the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The ministry told Kommersant that the FKU FTSPILO, which is subordinate to it, continues to supply the Federal Penitentiary Service with drugs for HIV. Since 2018, funding for public procurement of such funds has generally increased by 10 billion rubles, to 31.7 billion rubles, they added. The Federal Penitentiary Service did not respond to Kommersant’s request.

The change in the public procurement operator has radically changed the composition of drug suppliers for the Federal Penitentiary Service. In 2020, the main counterparty of the service was the Nacimbio structure of Rostec, they say at the Headway Company. Then, according to SPARK-Interfax, the total amount of the company’s contracts with the Federal Penitentiary Service amounted to 3 billion rubles, or 89.2% of the total funding for 2020. In 2021-2022, the list of suppliers has expanded.

So, the main counterparties were Advanced Trading (almost 600 million rubles with a share of 21%) and Virend International (424.37 million rubles, or 15%), calculated in the Headway Company. Both companies were founded by immigrants from India and produce anti-tuberculosis drugs in Russia.

According to SPARK-Interfax, Advanced Trading is owned by Rajesh Sharma: in 2021, the company’s revenue is 1.831 billion rubles, of which 57% came from government contracts. Virend International with revenue in 2021 of 1.2 billion rubles. (of which 85% are government contracts) belongs to Elena Kumar, the wife of the ex-CEO of the company Ashish Kumar.

Even despite the high dynamics of growth in drug purchases for the Federal Penitentiary Service in 2022, the quality of service in the medical units of the Federal Penitentiary Service is unlikely to change, says Sergey Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group. In his opinion, the reason is that the financing of costs in this segment has not changed significantly for several years.

Olga August, Khalil Aminov