Between January and September 2018, there was not any major changes in the ranking of the top pharmaceutical distributors, except for the top places. The first three places have changed, with Puls having reached first place after quite a struggle. The changes are not that surprising, which we discussed in our previous review (Q1 – Q2 results.)

The market is still undergoing consolidation, with the share of the largest companies having increased by 2.8% over the year. Only our distributors have had their market share decreased, however, Protek and Katren have done it deliberately to clean their client’s portfolio. R-Pharm is also doing better; its subsidiary R-Opra won a tender for the right to conclude a second offset contract with Moscow. Even the fate of the long-suffering SIA International has more or less been determined; in October, the board of Magnit approved the purchase of it. Moreover, despite the transaction not having been closed yet, Magnit has already begun negotiations with manufacturers, for which they bought an operating company with a license for pharmaceutical activity in September.

We should also mention the hot initiative by Andrei Belousov, Assistant to the Russian President, who proposed to form a united pharmaceutical drug importer, able to consolidate the import of pharmaceuticals and medical devices amounting to 200 bln RUB a year. Well, let us see.

Tab. Top 15 pharmaceutical distributors with the largest market share of direct shipments of drugs (including preferential shipments), in monetary terms (Q1 – Q3 2018)