Exports of medicines from Russia have decreased by 20% this year
Source：Vedomosti
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Moscow
Update Time：2023/12/16
In the first seven months of 2023, Russian distributors exported 230 million packages of Russian medicines to foreign countries (excluding EAEU states). This is stated in the report of the analytical company RNC Pharma, which Vedomosti reviewed. According to her information, this is the lowest figure in the last six years (there are no earlier data).
For comparison: during the same period in the pre-Covid years 2018 and 2019, Russia exported 270 million and 300 million packages, respectively. In the first seven months of 2020, shipments increased to a record 390 million packages. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia began exporting drugs prescribed to treat this infection, recalls Sergei Shulyak, CEO of the marketing agency DSM Group. In particular, we are talking about antiviral drugs arbidol and avifavir. In this regard, the export of domestic drugs has reached its maximum values over the past few years, Shulyak explained.
Drug supplies for seven months of 2021 and 2022. amounted to 310 million and 290 million packages, respectively, added Nikolay Bespalov, development director at RNC Pharma.
Experts explain the fall in the export of drugs from Russia to foreign countries mainly by difficulties with making payments between domestic companies and foreign partners. Since the vast majority of Russian banks are under sanctions, they cannot make international payments and exporters have to look for workarounds, which is associated with additional costs, explains Pavel Lisovsky, managing partner of the consulting company “Design of Management Systems” specializing in the pharmaceutical market. Shulyak adds that many foreign partners are now afraid of sanctions from European countries due to cooperation with Russia. According to him, the markets of most foreign countries, with the exception of the EAEU and CIS countries, are virtually inaccessible to domestic pharmaceutical companies.
Within these zones, pharmaceutical exporters may experience increased sales. For example, the Russian pharmaceutical company Geropharm managed to increase exports, including through supplies to CIS countries. In the first seven months of 2023, this figure for the manufacturer increased by 37% to 1.5 million packages, said its director for international development Irina Yemchenko. According to her, revenue growth was about 30%.
In other Russian pharmaceutical companies, in particular R-pharm, Generium, Biocad, Pharmasintez, Pharmstandard, Vedomosti’s requests were left unanswered. The distributors of the drugs Katrain, BSS, and Irwin did the same.
Increasing the export of Russian pharmaceutical products is one of the tasks of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. In 2019, the department committed itself to increasing this indicator 4 times by 2024; these plans were then voiced by First Deputy Minister Sergei Tsyb (now works at Rostec). According to him, at that time Russia exported pharmaceutical products to more than 120 countries.
A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade explained to Vedomosti that the decrease in the export of medicines may be associated with a significant reduction in the export of vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19. As for the geography of supplies of Russian pharmaceutical products, the traditional largest partners for Russia are the member countries of the EAEU and the CIS, the Latin American region and the countries of the Middle East and Africa, he added.
Source: https://www.vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2023/09/11/994373-eksport-lekarstv-iz-rossii-v-etom-godu-snizilsya