The sale of prescription drugs online will be allowed from March 1, 2023

From March 1, 2023, an experiment on the remote sale of prescription drugs will begin in Moscow, the Moscow and Belgorod regions: the State Duma adopted the relevant bill in the first reading. It will not be possible to order discounted free and narcotic medicines, as well as vaccines and immunoglobulins remotely.

The bill was prepared on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, Deputy Minister of Health Sergei Glagolev reported, and determines the procedure for conducting an experiment on remote sale of prescription drugs.

Criteria that will make it possible to understand which medicines can be bought remotely, which organizations will receive the right to engage in this type of trade, and much more will then be written in by-laws. It is only known that for narcotic drugs, precursors, radiopharmaceutical and immunobiological drugs, as well as drugs that require special storage conditions, you still have to go to the pharmacy.

The head of the Duma Committee on Health Protection, Dmitry Khubezov (ER), called the initiative a “second step.” The first was made in 2020, when the law on distance selling of over-the-counter drugs was passed. This method of trading, according to the deputy, “received a positive response, helped a lot during the pandemic, and people with limited mobility benefited as much as possible.”

The bill states that prescription drugs can be bought remotely from March 1, 2023 in three constituent entities of the Russian Federation: Moscow, Moscow and Belgorod regions. The experiment will last three years, and if successful, the experience will be extended to the whole country. Mr. Khubezov explained that the above three regions were chosen because “there is maximum readiness, a high level of digitalization.”

There were many questions. Alexander Aksenenko (ER) asked how the issue with hard-to-reach territories would be resolved – in remote villages, according to him, people are not waiting for delivery, because it will be “gold”, but for mobile pharmacy points. And he asked who would be responsible for the remote delivery of “wrong, bad medicines.”

In the regions selected for the experiment, frankly, there are practically no hard-to-reach territories. As for counterfeit goods, Mr. Glagolev said that Roszdravnadzor and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are working “extremely intensively” to stop the activities of websites that violate the rules for the sale of drugs: last year more than 25,000 of these were blocked, and indeed criminal liability is provided for this.

Will it not turn out that only large pharmacy chains will be allowed to participate in the experiment, Nina Ostanina (KPRF) noted. According to her, there are almost 1,700 pharmacies in Moscow, 1,300 in the region, and about 300 in the Belgorod region. No, Mr. Glagolev assured: the experience of distance selling OTC drugs shows that both large and small pharmacies fall under the criteria.

The deputies were also interested in the “deliverers of medicines”, as they are called in the bill. “No courier will actually check the passport. He delivered to the address, and that’s it. But the person who received the prescription will not necessarily get it,” said Sergei Leonov (LDPR). The procedure for identifying the consumer to whom the prescription is issued will also be developed by the government later.

Questions were raised by both the number and the list of regions admitted to the experiment (“Why not Tatarstan, for example?”), And its timing (“Why is it so long – three years? One would be enough”). Many suggested giving the right to other regions as soon as they are ready to connect too.

The issue of remote supply of subsidized drugs, which certain categories of citizens receive free of charge, is also not being resolved.

“Recently, I helped two very elderly women get free over-the-counter drugs at home. These were two different areas. On one occasion it took me two hours, on the other three. Why are free prescription drugs for older patients excluded from the bill? – asked Oleg Leonov (“New People”). “Oncological patients are 90% beneficiaries who receive medicines for free,” said Alexei Kurinny (KPRF). Vice-speaker Irina Yarovaya (ER) also spoke about cancer patients.

“As for free medicines, this requires resolving issues with budget financing,” the deputy minister said. And he clarified that the subjects of the Russian Federation have the right to solve the problem of delivering drugs to citizens with limited mobility through the system of social workers.

However, Mr. Glagolev expressed readiness to clarify the criteria for entering the experiment and many other details during the preparation of the text of the bill for the second reading.

The second reading may take place in early October.