Peculiarities of pricing for pharmaceutical products from the list of vital drugs in the Russian Federation

The article focuses on identifying the main approaches to pricing of drugs: free pricing; maximum markups to the original price; the method of maximum selling prices for reference drugs; profitability control; pricing based on the advantages of a drug (parametric method, setting a price based on the advantages of a particular drug relative to others). It is shown that state regulation of pricing of drugs allows keeping prices at the level of average consumer prices. The article substantiates the need to take into account economic, medical and social efficiency in pricing of pharmaceutical products. Regulated pricing does not mean that regulated prices will be unprofitable, that prices are frozen, but it can be argued that prices become predictable, and their volatility becomes acceptable for manufacturers and consumers of pharmaceutical products. The article identifies the following vulnerabilities of regulatory systems: limited access to information needed to compare prices; difficult identification of a drug due to differences in trade, names, dosages and packaging in different countries; low level of profitability of pharmaceutical manufacturers, in terms of products included in the list of vital drugs. Fair pricing is promising, which means developing pricing methods that reduce differences in the availability of drugs and the possibility of financing their use.