In January-July 2023, the public procurement market for medicines decreased by 18% year-on-year

Since the beginning of this year, the amount of government contracts at R-Pharm has almost halved, at Pharmstandard – by 36%. Two pharmaceutical distributors, traditionally at the top of the list of major drug suppliers to the state, previously increased purchases of COVID-19 drugs, and the end of the pandemic had a noticeable impact on their volumes. At the same time, the entire segment of public procurement fell by 18%. The reason for this is the rush purchase of drugs last year under a number of state programs at the expense of the budget provided for 2023. The market is waiting for the restoration of public procurement volumes at the beginning of next year.

In January-July 2023, the public procurement market for medicines decreased by 18% year-on-year, to 452.8 billion rubles, Headway Company calculated at the request of Kommersant. But for two large suppliers of government orders — Alexey Repik’s R-Pharm and Viktor Kharitonin’s Pharmstandard, which traditionally occupy the first lines in the rating of government segment pharmaceutical distributors, contract volumes decreased much more noticeably — by 1.7 times year-on-year, to 40.2 billion rubles, and by 36%, to 44.9 billion rubles, respectively. Pharmstandard did not respond to Kommersant’s request, R-Pharm declined to comment.

These companies have been actively delivering COVID-19 funds, and the end of the pandemic has affected government procurement. In January-July 2023, R-Pharm and Pharmstandard practically did not conclude a single state contract for such drugs, although a year ago they supplied these drugs for 14.5 billion rubles. and more than 1 billion rubles. respectively. A Kommersant source close to R-Pharm confirms that the decline in public procurement was also due to this reason.

The results of these distributors were also affected by the fall in 2023 in the volume of public procurement under federal programs, including “14 high-cost nosologies” (14 VZN), says Lyudmila Balandina, Head of Strategic Development at Headway Company. As a result, the share of drugs for 14 VZN in the total volume of state supplies from Pharmstandard for seven months of this year has almost halved year-on-year, to 21%. According to the results of the first half of 2023, GDP, which also supplies interferon beta-1b for 14 VZNs, completely dropped out of the top 50 large distributors, the Headway Company notes. According to SPARK, in January-July the company signed state contracts for 1 billion rubles, which is almost nine times less year on year. In “GDP” did not answer the questions of “Kommersant”.

At Biocad, which supplies interferon beta-1b and other funds for 14 VZN under the state order, supplies decreased 6.6 times year-on-year, to 2.1 billion rubles, Kommersant calculated based on data from SPARK. The company does not agree with these calculations, indicating that they also sell drugs through distributor partners.

Nikolai Bespalov, Development Director of RNC Pharma, explains the reduction in the volume of public procurement under the 14 VZN program this year by the fact that in 2022, customers, trying to form stocks of drugs due to the crisis, purchased excess volumes. According to Headway Company estimates, in 2022 the amount of contracts under this state program grew by 30.8% year-on-year, to RUB 95.4 billion. For these purposes, the Ministry of Health began spending budget funds for subsequent years last spring (see Kommersant dated April 25, 2022). As a result, in 2023, purchases decreased by 3.2 times: the ministry bought additional drugs for 14 VZNs for 30 billion rubles, practically exhausting the annual budget.

The situation is similar with the procurement of medicines under the state program to combat HIV. According to the estimates of the Treatment Preparedness Coalition, since the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Health has purchased additional drugs for 21.5 billion rubles, which is 1.8 times less year-on-year.

The only segments where large distributors managed to increase the volume of government contracts in January-July of this year were purchases for medical institutions and privileged categories of citizens. Thus, according to Headway Company, contracts for hospital purchases at Pharmstandard grew by 8.6% year-on-year, to 8.55 billion rubles, for beneficiaries – by 22.6%, to 17.96 billion rubles. R-Pharm increased deliveries only for beneficiaries – by 166%, to 21.8 billion rubles. But this includes contracts with counter investment obligations, involving deliveries in subsequent years.

Nikolai Bespalov is counting on the restoration of the public procurement segment at the end of this year and the beginning of next. DSM Group CEO Sergei Shulyak believes that the growth of the public procurement market can ensure the expansion of the state guarantee program, including through expensive drugs.

Polina Gritsenko