Database Update: API Import to Russia (June 2019)
Between January and June 2019, Russia imported 56.4 bln RUB worth of APIs (free circulation prices, VAT included), which is in monetary terms (rubles) 21% higher than that of the same period in 2018. In physical terms, Russia imported 5.8 thousand tons of APIs, and the dynamics are +6.1%, if calculated in kilos. 96.6% of the API import accounts for pharmacopoeial APIs.
Commercial APIs have never been imported that much; the maximum goes back to 2010, with 6.6% of the total API import in physical terms. Between January and June 2019, commercial APIs account for as little as 3.4% of the total API import, which is close to its historical minimum.
Another important change concerns redistribution of the currency structure. Between January and June 2019, 15.9% of the total import was payed for in rubles, which is its historical maximum, against 9.5% in 2018. On the one hand, the number is low, especially against the currency structure of the ready-made drug import. On the other hand, the API import is currently experiencing the development period that the ready-made drug import experienced 10 or 15 years ago, when all ready-made drug importers started using rubles to avoid the negative circumstances of the ruble fluctuation. In 2010, only 1% of the total API import in physical terms was paid in rubles.
Between January and June 2019, Russia imported 659 API trademarks, and 4 dozens of them are imported since 2010. These trademarks are mostly commercial APIs. The leader in monetary terms is Narlaprevir, which was imported by R-Pharm this year. R-Pharm purchased the rights to the drug, for the production of which they import Narlaprevir, from MSD. This drug was imported in-bulk since 2016, but now it is clearly a full circle. Between January and June 2019, R-Pharm imported 694.4 mln RUB worth of Narlaprevir.
As for the new pharmacopoeial APIs, Ticagrelor, imported by AstraZeneca, accounts for the biggest volume in monetary terms. Brilinta was mostly imported in-bulk and packaged by AstraZeneca Industries in the Kaluga region. Only two SKUs were imported as ready-made drugs, in particular in packages of 56 and 168 60-mg tablets.
Dynamics of pharmacopoeial and commercial API import to Russia, customs clearance prices (2016 – 2018, January – June 2019), bln RUB