August 23, 2023

A Shortage of Drugs


A Shortage of Drugs
Medicines. Marko Verch, Flickr

Russian hospitals recently received a communication from the Ministry of Health containing a list of 196 medicines that could vanish from the Russian market in the near future. The note advised medical practitioners to consider this information when prescribing medications and to explore alternative treatment options when possible.

The list encompasses a range of medications, including some discontinued due to obsolescence and others that are especially specific. Still others are life-saving.

Healthcare professionals have said that the lack of modern antibiotics crucial for patients in critical conditions, such as Sivextro and Invanz, will be particularly impactful. Additionally, many medicines used in the treatment of oncological disorders are also being phased out of the Russian market. Despite some having local equivalents, there are concerns that insufficient research validates the effectiveness of such substitutes.

Another important drug on this list is the French drug Solian, which is used in the treatment of schizophrenia and has no analogs among Russian-manufactured drugs.

According to the media outlet Kholod, several suppliers are exiting the Russian market due to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, the devalued ruble exchange rate, and government price controls. Even companies operating within Russia, selling in rubles, find it challenging to sustain operations since they must compensate shareholders in foreign currencies. "It is easier for them to leave the market," said Yury Meshcheryakov, a specialist in clinical pharmacology.

At the same time, some doctors interviewed by journalists believe that the Ministry of Health sometimes colludes with the largest Russian pharmaceutical manufacturer, R-Pharm, in order to create unfavorable conditions for its competitors and squeeze them out of the market.

After its initial notice, the Ministry of Health announced that it would send "updated information" later. However, at the time of publication of the Kholod article, he had not done so. This may be due to the leakage of the first letter through specialized channels, which could frighten the department.

The drying-up of the Russian drug market is not new. Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of popular drugs disappeared from pharmacies. Among them were antitumor agents, antihistamines, antibiotics, antipyretics, and blood pressure medications. Among the drugs that have virtually disappeared from conventional pharmacies is the popular drug Ozempic, used by people with diabetes. It can be found at illegal dealers at a price eight times higher than its usual value.

You Might Also Like

Antidepressants on the Rise
  • August 03, 2023

Antidepressants on the Rise

Antidepressant use in Russia has skyrocketed over the last year, especially in St. Petersburg.
No Money, Only War
  • March 29, 2023

No Money, Only War

Russian authorities blame the "special military operation" for the disruption of infrastructural and social projects.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Russian Rules

Russian Rules

From the shores of the White Sea to Moscow and the Northern Caucasus, Russian Rules is a high-speed thriller based on actual events, terrifying possibilities, and some really stupid decisions.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955