Russian veterinarians cry for help: import substitution does not save

– What is happening with the supply of foreign vaccines? I always vaccinated my dog ​​with Nobivak, but this year I had to sit on the phone for a long time before I found a veterinary clinic where this drug was available.

– Not only you alone faced this problem, many dog ​​owners vaccinated their pets with this drug. It is effective, safe, in addition, officially recognized in many countries. Therefore, the owners of animals who traveled with them to international exhibitions always vaccinated them with this particular vaccine. But this year its manufacturer decided to leave Russia.

– Are there any other reliable vaccines left?

– Of the imported vaccines, we only sell Eurikan and Kanigen for dogs and Purevax and Feligen for cats. But their supplies have always been much smaller in volume, and there have been problems with them before. Therefore, now it is true that in order to vaccinate a dog, one needs to spend more than one day calling clinics or pre-ordering the vaccine and waiting for it to be delivered. Especially it is necessary to attend in advance to those who are going to travel abroad with their pet. Without a rabies vaccination, they won’t be able to take them with them. Moreover, some countries also require a rabies test, so all these procedures need to be planned well in advance.

– Some clinics offer to vaccinate animals with Czech vaccines – can they be trusted?

– Indeed, we are trying to compensate for the shortage of vaccines with these drugs. But they are not listed in all countries, so if you are going abroad with an animal, it is better to find out if a dog or cat will be allowed to pass at the border with such a vaccination.

– Many experts say that soon we may lose all foreign vaccines for animals. If amendments to the law “On Veterinary Medicine” come into force on September 1, according to which foreign manufacturers will be required to transfer samples of their drugs to us for storage, they are unlikely to agree to this.

Of course, no one in their right mind would agree to that. Foreign firms have been conducting research in the field of microbiology for years, spending billions of dollars to create an effective vaccine formula, to grow strains of viruses that give stable immunity to an animal – this is their know-how, so no one will ever agree to take and deposit their intellectual property with a foreign state. own.

– Are our domestic vaccines effective? What will we do if tomorrow they suddenly stop supplying us with imported drugs?

– I think yes. But this is my subjective opinion, unfortunately, no serious studies have been conducted with our vaccines. I proceed from the fact that in dog shelters animals are vaccinated with domestic vaccines, and there have not been recorded epidemics of rabies or other infectious diseases, therefore, probably, vaccines are fulfilling their role. But Russian drugs have a very small amount of research. Therefore, they do not have international registration. It is almost impossible to go anywhere with them. This is a big problem in terms of moving with animals. The only thing we know for sure is that they are safe.

– It is clear that the logistics of many goods, including veterinary drugs, have changed a lot due to Western sanctions, but was it really impossible to arrange deliveries through parallel imports in more than a year?

– The problem is that many of these drugs, such as vaccines, require special conditions for transportation and storage. They need to be kept in the refrigerator. Therefore, clinics always try to get drugs from large distributors, and not use the services of small little-known dealers. And when the official representative of the company leaves the market, there is always a lot of problem, how to check where and how the goods were stored, transported? Having stamped the vaccination, we are responsible for the animal. If suddenly it gets sick later, or at least the rabies test fails, then the reputation of the veterinary clinic will suffer, and the owners will not be able to go abroad with the pet.

– Is it true that the customs will confiscate veterinary drugs without a Russian annotation?

– Yes, it happened before. In order to combat drugs that are imported into the country without Russian registration. Perhaps, from the point of view of tax legislation, this measure is justified, but given the shortage of many veterinary drugs, it is probably necessary to make some concessions for those companies that are now engaged in parallel imports in this area of ​​supply.

– Perhaps these measures are necessary to combat counterfeit products?

– The presence of Russian packaging in no way protects against fakes. Nothing will prevent scammers from printing an abstract in Russian. Another thing is the non-compliance with the packaging standards of the official manufacturer, this can be an unconditional sign that something is wrong with the drug. On the manufacturer’s website, you can always see what the packaging of certain drugs looks like now, and if its design changes, then information about it immediately appears there. Firms always describe in detail where the inscription, trademark, and so on should be. For example, in my practice there was such a case when the old name of the company was written on the packaging, although by that time it had already changed it. But counterfeit manufacturers apparently did not know this.

– What types of drugs are currently in the greatest deficit?

– I can’t say that some drugs are not on sale at all, and we can’t replace them with anything. Thank God, it didn’t come to that, but treating animals has become much more expensive and more difficult.

– Nevertheless, now is spring – it’s time to treat animals from ectoparasites, and getting popular pills that protect a dog from ixoid ticks is almost impossible.

– In fact, you can prevent in many ways: there are pills, there are drops on the withers, there are sprays. The choice of brands is large, but I agree that the drugs of the isoxazaline group that you are talking about are the most convenient and effective. Their advantage is that they help against all parasites at once – fleas, ixoid ticks, and some even have added substances from heartworms. In addition, some of them have a long validity period – up to 12 weeks.

– And because of what this deficit was formed – also the supplier left?

– They are produced only by three foreign companies, they own a patent for the production of drugs of the isoxazaline group. Recently, one of these manufacturers decided to leave our market, two other companies remained, but their supplies have always been much smaller, and now they are generally sold out instantly. Many owners stock up on drugs for the future until the end of the season.

– And our manufacturers cannot create a similar drug?

They’re trying, but so far it’s not working. The fact is that it is impossible to repeat exactly the same formula, it has already been patented by foreign companies. Therefore, domestic developers of tablets from ectoparasites decided to use another chemical substance – moxidectin.

During studies, when the drug was applied to ixoid ticks, insects died – this inspired them, but they did not take into account the fact that they used a large dose of the drug, which is potentially dangerous not only for ticks, but for animals too. Moxidectin-based preparations are good and effective, but only when they are used in the form of drops and applied to the withers of the dog, and in the form of tablets they can cause severe intoxication in the animal, even death. This is especially true for dogs with the MDR1 gene mutation, and this is a large list of breeds, which includes the Mastiff, the Sheltie, the Afghan Hound, and many other breeds.

– And what, this drug is now on sale?

No longer available in tablet form. After several dogs died, Rosselkhoznadzor received many complaints from owners and veterinarians, and it was discontinued. And they use it in drops, and for a long time, but again, foreign manufacturers, Russian companies, for some reason, are trying hard to make pills out of it, although it has already been proven that in this form it is dangerous.

– It turns out that there are no domestic tablets for ticks, and imported ones will soon disappear from sale? And then what to do?

– Let’s go back to the means that were used in pre-tablet times. There are effective drops at the withers from different manufacturers (Frontline, Advantix), but unlike tablets that last 12 weeks, drops should be applied more often – after 3-4 weeks. Plus, they can be supplemented with a tick collar, but it should fit snugly against the skin of the animal and be worn around the clock, and not just for a walk.

– But these drops are also imported, but is there anything domestic?

– Of the Russian ones, Dana Ultra and Rolf Club are now quite good in terms of composition. Only they need to be dripped every 2-3 weeks, because they do not stay on the skin for long.

– And such a frequency of processing will not hurt the dog?

– No, the drug is rapidly metabolized in the upper layers of the skin and practically does not enter the bloodstream. You can also wear a flea collar as an additional protection.

– Until now, we have been talking about drugs that healthy animals need, but what about drugs?

– There are three groups of drugs, the deficiency of which is always felt especially acutely. These are antibiotics, painkillers and anesthesia. Worst of all is the case with veterinary non-steroidal drugs for arthrosis, arthritis and other types of acute pain. They really practically left our market. Therefore, veterinarians have to prescribe medications to their patients that are not problematic. The only thing you need to accurately calculate the dose.

Even now, there are problems with the supply of imported drugs for anesthesia, such as Zoletil, it is safe, effective and convenient to use, since it can be administered both intramuscularly and intravenously, so it is mainly used by small veterinary clinics and private practitioners working for home. Now these drugs are supplied to Russia only through parallel imports, because of this their price has risen a lot, but you can get them. If you take large veterinary clinics, where the staff has an anesthesiologist and appropriate equipment, it is used quite rarely there. We mainly use medications, such as gas anesthesia. Some clinics are licensed to use narcotic drugs for pain relief. So, contrary to rumors, we have no problems with anesthesia.

– But for pet owners, the cost of services, in particular operations that require anesthesia, has increased?

– Yes, but without prejudice to patients. Now a little about antibiotics – this is a different story. The problem of resistance (addiction) to antibiotics is gaining momentum all over the world, covid has shown this especially clearly.

– And what about the animals?

– We can get resistance from animals too, through the microflora, and this has been proven. Therefore, the appointment of antibiotics for the treatment of pets should be very careful. Recently Rosselkhoznadzor published a list of medicines that should never be used in veterinary medicine. Because of this, we have seriously cut the list of drugs that we used to use. But this is the right decision, because we must think first of all about human security.

– What is the way out of this situation?

– Abroad, research is now being carried out to create antibiotics only for animals. They use active ingredients that are not used in medicine, so that there is no cross-resistance between the host and the animal. We also need to follow this path.