Lack of Registered Med Does Not Help Competition in Russia

The main reason is unregulated substitutability.

Holders of patents for original medicines try to maintain monopoly for them using different tricks. First of all, involving doctors in marketing of their medicines and disseminating an unreasonable opinion through them about the difference between therapeutic properties and safety of original medicine and generics, - explained Head of FAS Department.

The speaker also touched the issues associated with medicine registration, compiling lists, wholesale medicine trade, circulation of dietary supplements, and public procurement, emphasizing that “today cartelization in the medical sector is one of the highest among other sectors”.

Regarding state regulation of medicine prices, Timophei Nizhegorodtsev highlighted such issue as lack of interest of pharmaceutical manufacturers in supplying innovative medicine in the countries with small market scope, which reduces accessibility of medicinal assistance for the population in such countries.

Companies believe that patients can buy their medicine on adjacent markets. The only method to interest pharmaceutical manufacturers in the work on such markets is to offer them price premium. For example, when in exchange for office work costs, a company can fix a higher price for a medicine in comparison with markets with a higher capacity, - says Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade.

Finally, the speaker mentioned new price regulation recently introduced in Russia.

We moved completely away from a discriminatory costs method of registering medicines – to indicative parameters. It enabled us to reduce 1043 medicine prices on average by 43%, - emphasized Timophei Nizhegorodtsev.

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