Between January and September 2019, Russia imported a little over 462 bln RUB worth of ready-made pharmaceutical drugs and 91.7 bln RUB worth of in-bulk drugs (customs clearance prices), which is monetary terms (rubles) 22.3% and 12.5% higher than that of the same period in 2018, respectively. The dynamics of the import of ready-made drugs are record-worthy.

Between January and September 2019, Russia imported 98.3 bln RUB worth of APIs (customs clearance prices, VAT included), which is in monetary terms (rubles) 42% higher than that of the same period in 2018. This is the highest dynamics since the ruble devaluation in 2015, and the import volume of the first 9 months of 2019 exceeded the total import in 2018.

This year, the rather modest dynamics in monetary terms (rubles) demonstrated by the Russian pharmaceutical retail was in fact positive only due to price increases. The dynamics in physical terms, especially of over-the-counter drugs and parapharmaceuticals, continues to drop, which has become nearly common. In addition to stagnating household incomes, the non-pharmacy segment, which systematically steals consumers from conventional pharmacies, is also a significant problem. Online marketplaces are actively increasing in number as well, and foreign players are also trending. In particular, American iHerb announced their plans to open an office in Moscow, which is hardly good news for the Russian pharmaceutical retail.

The Russian pharmaceutical market is developing extremely unevenly in both individual market segments and specific product groups this year. Due to significant cash injections into the public sector, the dynamics in this segment is very different from that in the pharmaceutical retail.

Between January and September 2019, Russia manufactured 295 bln RUB worth of pharmaceutical drugs (manufacturers’ prices, VAT included), which is monetary terms (rubles) 22% higher than that in the same period in 2018. This is also the highest dynamics since 2016. The dynamics in physical terms (units) are +4.7%, or +4.2% if calculated in minimum dosage units (MDU). While these dynamics are far from those in 2016, these can still be considered high after the constant negative dynamics during 2017-2018.