Pharmacies are out of oncology drug uromitexan – Kommersant
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Patients in Russia are faced with a shortage of the oncology drug uromitexan, a source said “Vedomosti”. According to the Megapteka aggregator, it is not available in pharmacies in Moscow, Moscow region, St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, Novosibirsk, Izhevsk, Saratov, Samara, Volgograd and other cities.
The drug uromitexane is produced by the American company Baxter. The international nonproprietary name is mesna. Included in the list of vital and essential drugs (VED). It protects against the side effects of ifosfamide, which is prescribed during chemotherapy, explained Snezhanna Gening, an oncologist at the online insurance company Bestdoctor.
In October 2023, the manufacturer notified that it would supply “only products already produced in accordance with shipment orders that were previously received from distributors,” a Roszdravnadzor representative told Vedomosti. Information about uromitexane was last entered into the department’s system in April 2023.
In 2023, 6.9 thousand packages of uromitexane were imported into Russia, compared to 56.7 thousand in 2022 and 46.3 thousand in 2021, said Nikolai Bespalov, development director at RNC Pharma. According to him, the last deliveries were in April 2023.
There is only one generic uromitexan on the Russian market – mesna-lance from Veropharm, said oncologist Snezhanna Gening. Vedomosti was unable to find it for sale. In November 2023, the Ministry of Health sent a letter to the Ministry of Industry and Trade stating that manufacturers have no plans to produce drugs with the active ingredient mesna.
Experts interviewed by Vedomosti believe that Baxter decided to withdraw the drug from the market due to economic reasons. The cost of pharmaceutical production around the world is growing due to inflation and rising logistics costs, but in Russia it is impossible to quickly increase the price of the drug, since it is included in the list of vital and essential drugs, explained Nikolai Bespalov. The company needs to go through a special procedure and prove the need to increase the price. DSM Group CEO Sergei Shulyak believes that another reason may be the desire to maintain reputation in the international market. However, he notes that the manufacturer has been operating in Russia for 25 years and has not announced its departure.
About how Russians ignore symptoms of possible cancer – in the Kommersant article “The diagnosis is worse than cancer”.
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