Increasing prices on the pharmaceutical market as a threat to drug safety in Russia

Ensuring drug safety is an important area in the framework of the national security strategy, and in recent years, the urgency of achieving this task has increased significantly. The deterioration of the foreign policy situation subsequently led to a possible shortage in the pharmaceutical market, which actualized the task of developing our own production. The strategy of transition to the localization of imported pharmaceutical production in Russia was supposed to improve the situation in the field of drug supply and increase the availability of products for the population. The study assesses price changes in the Russian pharmaceutical market in 2021-2022, identifies trends that have developed under the influence of the crisis and their causes. It was found that in the period from June 2021 to June 2022, the pharmaceutical market was characterized by relative stability, with the exception of February-March 2022, when a sharp jump in weighted average prices occurred against the background of the beginning of the SVO. In the structure of sales, imported drugs are still leading, which largely determines the high prices for pharmaceutical products. An assessment of the sales structure in the context of the main price categories showed that the overwhelming volume of sales falls on drugs with a cost of more than 500 rubles. (more than 50% in 2022), as well as a group of drugs with a cost of 150-500 rubles, which account for approximately one third of total sales. Drugs with a lower cost occupy a low share in the overall sales structure.