Shortage of medicines provoked a resurgence of speculators in Russia

No sooner have we forgotten about the times when scarce goods were taken “from under the floor” as they return. And one of the first in this area were medicines. Over the past year, hundreds of drug names have disappeared from pharmacies, and some of them have acquired positions of persistent shortage.

However, you can buy everything from “speculators”. Industry experts on the sidelines of the 20th anniversary Pharmacy Summit told the MK columnist about how the gray market of medicines works, what is dangerous to buy medicines from resellers and whether it is possible to fight it.

This year, many drugs fell into defective positions – antitumor, antiallergic, antibiotics, antipyretics, pressure drugs, etc. For some of them, the problems were resolved, but with others the situation does not move from a dead center.

One of the most difficult problems is the complete absence in the country of the drug tamoxifen for hormone-dependent tumors, primarily breast cancer, which occupies a leading position in the structure of malignant neoplasms in women. There has been no tamoxifen for several months now – foreign manufacturers have withdrawn the imported one from the market, and the domestic one has not really begun to be produced. “The problem is that tamoxifen has been taken daily for several years, therapy cannot be interrupted,” says Dmitry Yagovdik, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Pharmacies of the Kaliningrad Region, member of the Alliance of Pharmaceutical Associations.

All regional departments of Roszdravnadzor are inundated with requests from patients. “I always had a supply of tamoxifen, but it is running out – now I take pills every other day, I don’t know what to do next,” says 54-year-old Svetlana from Moscow. “I managed to buy medicine in Egypt, bought up half of the pharmacy,” says Marianna from Lyubertsy.

However, dishonest people quickly cut through the “gold mine”. There are “shuttle traders” who bring scarce funds from other countries, as they say, at a speculative price. “These resellers offer on the Internet this drug, which is essentially a penny, at a price of 1.5 to 3 thousand rubles per pack. And not only tamoxifen – now, if you wish, you can get any “deficit” that we have missing. Moreover, a new service has appeared on the gray market : if you have a prescription, the price will be the same, and if you don’t have a prescription, you will have to pay extra. I know that some people go to Europe and buy prescriptions from dishonest doctors right there, “continues Yagovdik.

… Approximately since autumn, Ozempik, a drug for the treatment of diabetes, has disappeared in Russia. Officially, the manufacturers have not announced the termination of supplies, but there are none. The shortage was also fueled by the fact that this prescription drug, which should be taken strictly under medical supervision, has gained sudden popularity among ladies who dream of losing weight. However, despite the complete lack of medicine in warehouses, the network is full of ads for its sale from hand. “Wholesalers have not had this drug for the past few months. Federal and regional pharmacy chains that work in the legal field and according to established rules have not had it,” says Victoria Presnyakova, director of the Association of Independent Pharmacies SRO and head of the Alliance of Pharmaceutical Associations. – Origin and quality Ozempic, which is now sold in unknown pharmacies, raises questions: where did it come from, how was it stored, and how did the pharmacy software miss such a price.And why is there no information about it in the all-Russian drug movement labeling system? a large number of clinics. It is possible that this is a resale. We need to deal with each specific case. But in any case, these are serious violations that can lead to both administrative and criminal liability.”

According to Presnyakova, the fact that the drug for diabetes is sold in large quantities from the hands and with a huge margin did not become known yesterday: “After a number of publications in the media, Roszdravnadzor checked the information, and a number of points of sale were blocked. But new ones continue to open “Demand creates supply, women dream of losing weight on a “miracle pill”. No one thinks about how dangerous it is to take a prescription drug without a doctor’s supervision. And the consequences can be deplorable.”

The expert adds that, according to the state register of medicines, the maximum registered price of the manufacturer for this drug is 5.8 thousand rubles. Thus, the maximum retail price of the drug should not exceed 7.7 thousand rubles. in view of VAT. “The drug is included in the list of Vital and Essential Drugs, the price for it is strictly regulated by the state. The pharmacy software will not miss the overpricing, and such a violation will immediately be displayed in the drug movement monitoring system,” Victoria Presnyakova specifies.

“Medicines are a special product, which differs from the rest in that its end consumer is not able to assess its quality and safety on their own,” says Dmitry Yagovdik. “But as long as there is demand, the gray market is profitable. And it will exist as long as the regulator , the government, law enforcement agencies will not stop it. So far, I do not see that it is being effectively stopped.”

According to the head of the Samara Regional Pharmaceutical Association, Elena Gladkova, Roszdravnadzor blocks the channels of “gray” sales, but they reappear: “We need explanatory work among the population, we need to tell people that it’s scary, it’s very dangerous to buy drugs from the hands. Such drugs may not withstand temperature storage conditions, which threatens with unpredictable consequences, no one knows how they were transported. You don’t know what’s inside at all, but you won’t be able to return them. Well, the intake of all prescription drugs must be monitored by doctors. But we see that in Prescriptions of form 148 are already being sold on the Internet (for narcotic and psychotropic substances subject to subject-quantitative accounting – Ed.), And it is difficult for pharmacies to identify fakes.For example, if these are prescriptions from my region, I have a connection with doctors, I can at least somehow understand, but if the recipe is from another region?”

…As a result, while the gray market of medicines is gaining momentum, and, apparently, in the near future its popularity will only grow. Domestic manufacturers do not show much willingness to replace retiring positions, and the quality of Russian pharmaceutical products and our production capacity leaves much to be desired.