Pharmaceutical market of Russia: "We sell now more per day than earlier per month"

Even if we forget about the import of medicines and abandon it, the problems will still not go away. Russian drug manufacturers are facing a shortage of raw materials due to sanctions. They did not affect the pharmaceutical industry directly, but European contractors stopped supplying raw materials to Russian companies. Because of this, the Russian pharmaceutical industry began to stagnate. Deliveries from Europe have become impossible for at least one reason: no one knows how to make payments. As a result, standard samples that are used to control the quality of drugs turned out to be virtually unavailable. They were usually ordered in the US and Europe. The Ministry of Industry and Trade began working on creating its own center for reference materials only during the pandemic.

Over the past few days, imported drugs and substances have risen in price by about 35%. This is due to the weakening of the ruble, and with delivery, which has become more complicated. And without these substances, the domestic pharmaceutical industry will not be able to work. According to experts on the pharmaceutical market, imported substances are used in the manufacture of approximately 80-85% of Russian drugs.

Our reference: In 2021, 76.7% of raw materials imported into Russia came from India and China, 19.7% from the EU countries. Now pharmaceutical manufacturers should have enough stocks of substances for about six months, says Viktor Dmitriev, general director of the Association of Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers.

What is happening in pharmacy chains now? “There is nothing critical, but it is difficult to deny problems with logistics. Interruptions with medicines in pharmacies and their shortage are now mainly due to the fact that people buy medicines for the future. We are now selling more drugs per day than we usually sold in a month”, - Nelli Ignatieva, the executive director of the Russian Association of Pharmacy Chains (RAAS), Candidate of Pharmaceutical Sciences, said to NI.