Despite the relatively good results of last year, the overall profitability in the supply chain leaves much to be desired. First of all, this concerns the retail segment of the market, since the growth in 2019 is significantly lower than inflation, without any positive outlook, apart from the coronavirus, which might somewhat stabilize the situation. In addition, the Russian pharmaceutical retail market decided to follow the “big retail” and enter the era of global transformation together with the online segment.

The coronavirus epidemic in China has definitely become one of the central issues of the early 2020. It is difficult to predict how the situation will evolve, and what consequences the healthcare system and the economy will have to face. However, the aspect of a certain cultural phenomenon in our country, formed by COVID-2019, is hard to ignore.

In 2019, Russia manufactured 425.3 bln RUB worth of pharmaceutical drugs (manufacturers’ dispatch prices, VAT included), which is in monetary terms (rubles) 26.6% higher than that in 2018. The results are the highest since the financial crisis between 2015 and 2016. The dynamics in physical terms are +7.4% in units and +6.4% in minimum dosage units (MDU), with 4.5 bln units of ready-made pharmaceuticals, or 75 bln MDUs.

The volume of Russian households’ purchases of veterinary drugs amounted to 20.6 bln RUB (retail prices, VAT included) in 2019. The volume of purchases in physical terms is over 110 mln units (or over 199 mln MDUs), including veterinary products sold in single-unit packages.

Despite a flurry of criticism of the activities of the former members of the Ministry of Health, only 5% of doctors believe that the new Government of the Russian Federation will make fundamental changes to the key issues of the organization of the health system, according to an online survey by the RNC Pharma analyst company and the Doktor Na Rabote (Doctor at Work) social media service for doctors. Most respondents (43%) are sure that not only personnel changes, but also a revision of the decision-making and responsibility system is necessary to change the current situation.