Russia may introduce criminal responsibility for ‘unfounded drug price’ increases

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the national Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) and the federal government to continue regular monitoring of drug prices in the domestic market, as well as their compliance with the current market realities, according to recent statements of the press-service of the Russian Presidential Administration, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

According to Mr Putin’s instructions, the report about the current situation on prices in the Russian drug market should be provided for his consideration by September 15 of the current year.

According to state plans, on the basis of the report, the Russian government plans to take a decision about its further pricing policy in the domestic pharmaceutical market and may even introduce a criminal responsibility for the unfounded prices’ increase.

As Mr Putin said, in recent years, drug prices in Russia have significantly increased, mainly due to unfair pricing policy which was implemented by some leading Russian drug producers and global majors operating in the domestic pharmaceutical market.

This took place, despite the fact that sales of domestic drugs since the beginning of the current year have increased on year-on-year basis, according to the latest report of the Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat),

According to Rosstat data, sales of Russian-made drugs in the first five months of 2016 rose by more than 40%, compared with the same period of last year.

An official spokesman of the Ministry of Health said that this was mainly due to the policy of import substitution, which is implemented by the Russian government and the fact that Russian consumers have switched to less expensive domestic drugs, amid the times of the financial crisis in Russia.

Global drugmakers investment in R&D activities in Russia in 2015

Meantime, 11.7 billion roubles (~$180 million) were spent by global drugmakers in the Russian pharmaceutical market in 2015, according to recent statements of Vladimir Shipkov, executive director of the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (AIPM) in Russia, (a trade association representing foreign drugmakers operating in Russia.

Mr Shipkov said that about 29% of this sum was spent on payments to doctors, another 28% to hospitals and medical offices, while about 5 billion roubles on the R&D activities. Among the biggest spenders in the Russian pharmaceutical market were Sanofi, Bayer and Novartis.

This information, however, was partially denied by producers, according to which they did not make any direct payments to doctors, which is banned by the Russian national legislation, and may be subject of a fine of several million rubles.

According to producers, the majority of these funds were invested by them in the conduct of clinical trials and tests of new drugs in Russia.

At the same, according to an official spokesman of the AIPM, the announced figures for global drugmakers spending in Russia have become significantly lower than those which were initially expected by the Russian government and the Association.

According to predictions of the AIPM, the volume of spending of the companies in Russia is expected to be significantly increased this year, due to the easing of the consequences of the financial crisis in Russia, which was caused by Western sanctions.

http://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/russia-may-introduce-criminal-responsibility-for-unfounded-drug-price-increases