Insulin will fall into other hands – Kommersant
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One of the major European insulin manufacturers Novo Nordisk, following the American BMS and Eli Lilly, may transfer the supply of its drugs to Russia to a third-party distributor, although a final decision has not yet been made. This will lead to a reduction in the Russian market share of Novo Nordisk, part of which may pass to the Russian Geropharm, experts predict.
The fact that the Danish Novo Nordisk, which has been supplying insulin to Russia since the 1990s, is considering the possibility of reducing its presence in the Russian market by transferring the supply of drugs to the country to a third-party distributor, two sources told Kommersant in the pharmaceutical market. They clarify that the final decision has not yet been made. According to one of them, a possible contender for managing Novo Nordisk’s Russian business is Swiss-registered Swixx Biopharma. He explains this by the fact that other Western pharmaceutical manufacturers who left the Russian Federation have already acted in this way. We are talking about the American Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Eli Lilly, who transferred the supply of their drugs to the Russian Federation to Swixx Biopharma (see Kommersant of March 28).
Novo Nordisk did not respond to Kommersant’s request. It was not possible to get prompt comments from Swixx Biopharma.
The pharmaceutical industry is not subject to Western sanctions. But a number of foreign companies, despite the growth of their revenue in Russia, are trying to leave the country under public pressure in their countries and due to difficulties with logistics, market participants said earlier to Kommersant. According to SPARK-Interfax, Novo Nordisk LLC, the Russian subsidiary of the Danish company, saw its revenue grow by 13% year-on-year in 2022, to RUB 15.39 billion, and net profit 2.3 times , up to 690 million rubles.
As RBC reported in March of this year, Novo Nordisk had already notified Roszdravnadzor of its plans to stop deliveries of Ozempic, a popular diabetes drug used, among other things, to lose weight, to the Russian Federation by the end of 2023. According to DSM Group, in 2022, sales of this product in pharmaceutical retail increased by 44% year-on-year, to 2.2 billion rubles, and in public procurement – 31 times, to 581 million rubles.
In the first quarter of 2023, Novo Nordisk sold Fiasp, the diabetes drug, to public procurement operators the most — by 401.28 million rubles, which is 20% more year-on-year, says Lyudmila Balandina, head of strategic development at Headway Company. At the same time, according to her, in January-March, government purchases of two products produced by the company decreased: Novo Rapid Flexpena – by 10.5%, to 62.39 million rubles, and Novo Mix 30 Flexpena – by 1 .6 times, up to 69.46 million rubles.
After the introduction of the “third wheel” principle on state tenders, when a foreign manufacturer is not allowed to bid if a Russian company has a purchased product, Novo Nordisk switched to the pharmacy segment, says Mikhail Bogomolov, head of the Russian Diabetes Association. Due to pharmaceutical retail, the company could increase revenue annually. The main player in the state segment for the purchase of insulin is now Geropharm, says Mr. Bogomolov.
This is confirmed by Headway Company data, according to which, in the first quarter of this year, purchases under state tenders, in particular, Rinfast insulin aspart produced by the company, almost tripled, to 418 million rubles. In general, the revenue of Geropharm, owned by the family of the former top manager of Gazprom, Pyotr Rodionov, in 2022 increased by 23% year-on-year, to 7.89 billion rubles, net profit – by 22%, to 1.68 billion rub.
If Novo Nordisk reduces the supply of drugs, then, according to the medical director of IPharm, endocrinologist Yulia Trakhtenberg, diabetics will have to switch to Geropharm’s funds.
Now the market is circulating information about the departure of a number of Western pharmaceutical companies. One of Kommersant’s interlocutors names the German Boehringer Ingelheim, which produces, in particular, drugs for patients with heart disease. In 2022, the company’s sales in the Russian Federation amounted to 27 billion rubles. In the Russian “daughter” of the company, they told Kommersant that “they continue to work and supply drugs to all regions of the country.”
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