While Russia is still new to pharmaceutical export and the export of ready-made drugs hardly amounted to 22 bln RUB in 2017 (customs duties included, EAEU countries excluded), the API export in 2017 amounted to only 1.2 bln RUB. In a number of cases, it is not exactly export, rather return of import.

However, the dynamics in monetary terms are better, +82% for 2017. In physical terms, the dynamics are -15.4%, with 59.8 tons of API. At the beginning of 2018, the export kept decreasing, and the dynamics in both monetary and physical terms followed. Between January and April 2018, the dynamics of the API export were -8% (in monetary terms) and -43% (in physical terms.)

The high dynamics in monetary terms in 2017 is due to high levels of return of import, in particular, nearly 650 mln RUB of insulinum glarginum (Sanofi) and 117 mln RUB of deproteinized calf blood gemoderivat (Takeda.)

The export of Russian-made API amounted to 362.5 mln RUB in 2017 (customs duties included), which is in monetary terms 3% higher than that of 2016 and in physical terms 36% higher than that of 2016 (37.5 tons.) In 2017, Russia exported to 14 countries, two of which, Morocco and Azerbaijan, were new.

Fig 1. API export from Russia (EEU countries excluded)