Pharmacists urge to calm down, although the situation may change for the worse

According to pharmaceutical market experts, the volume of drug imports has fallen by 1.5% since the beginning of 2022, and there are occasional interruptions in certain drugs.

As Viktor Dmitriev, Chairman of the Public Council under Roszdravnadzor, General Director of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, explained during a press conference at the NSN, despite the fact that drugs were not subject to sanctions, problems with the timely provision of drugs to the population periodically arise, and their main reasons are logistical problems and bureaucratic delays:

“Now the logistics issues have become much more complicated: this is due to restrictions on flights and restrictions on crossing borders, etc. In our country (I mean in the Union State of Russia and Belarus), unfortunately, in addition, since September 20, the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 604 on amending the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus dated April 22, 2022 No. 247 is in force. As a result, from September 20, finished medicines (including bulk ones), medical devices, spare parts for them, raw materials and materials for the production of medicines or medical devices that are not included in the State Register of Medicines of the Republic of Belarus or the Unified Register of Registered Medicines of the Eurasian Economic Union. I talked to companies and found out that someone was able to overcome this newly emerged barrier, someone still has problems here. The fact is that not all drugs registered in the Russian Federation are registered in Belarus, so they may not be present in the State Register of the Republic of Belarus. In addition, even those drugs that are already registered within the EurAsEC are included in their register. Unfortunately, filling this register is not going as fast as we would like.”

Another serious logistical problem that negatively affects the Russian pharmaceutical market, according to Viktor Dmitriev, is that in November 2022, the Federal Air Transport Agency did not extend the permission for Chinese airlines to use Russian airspace:

“Apparently, this is a response to the fact that the Chinese have also introduced certain restrictions related to the fact that there are questions on warranty maintenance of aircraft that are in the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, the possibility of delivering some ingredients from China by air has actually become inaccessible to us. Now about sea transport… Unfortunately, only two docks in our glorious eastern port of Vladivostok are able to receive heavy tankers that can carry a large number of containers. Accordingly, there are restrictions on unloading containers, and part of our cargo is forced to leave Vladivostok either again for Korea or China. There, these cargoes are reloaded onto smaller vessels, which are then unloaded in Vladivostok. As you understand, this increases the cost of all logistics and lengthens. If at the beginning of February 2022 we had guaranteed supplies from China within 30-35 days, today we are told about 90 days, and the planning horizon is no more than two weeks. At the same time, it is possible that in two weeks the situation may change for the worse. Of course, we also have the Caspian Sea, but insurance companies there do not insure those cargoes that go through Iranian waters. This is also a problem. Well, plus everything (and this is probably the main problem!) is a rather clumsy pricing policy in the Russian Federation, which makes the production of many drugs in the Russian Federation (primarily drugs in the low price segment) not only unprofitable, but unprofitable. And for this reason, perhaps in the near future we will see the exclusion of a fairly large number of dosage forms and drugs from the list of vital and essential drugs (VED).

Taking into account the current situation, the Ministry of Health has already decided to replenish stocks (create 4-month stocks) of medicines that are purchased through public procurement in medical institutions in all regions. However, as noted by the director of the SRO “Association of Independent Pharmacies”, the head of the alliance of pharmaceutical associations, Victoria Presnyakova, who also took part in the press conference, this decision does not apply to retail, to the pharmacy segment, which makes up about 80% of the total market in rubles:

“Pharmacists do not have their own warehouses, they have nowhere to store a stock of medicines. They directly depend on distributors and wholesalers who buy drugs 2-3 times a week. Therefore, we cannot hope that pharmacies will make such a supply.”

So, if, thanks to the timely decision of the Ministry of Health, patients who ended up in hospitals are guaranteed to be provided with medicines for at least four months, now, probably, no one can vouch for the guaranteed and timely provision of all the rest …

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo by Moscow agency