Russian patients faced an acute shortage of imported medicines for patients with rheumatic diseases, in particular, methotrexate solution, included by the government in the list of vital and essential medicines (VED), Vedomosti newspaper reports with reference to the Russian Rheumatology Association “Nadezhda”. This drug is taken on a regular basis by 2-2.5 million people, and a pause in the treatment can lead to serious exacerbations.
Patients with rheumatological diseases in all Russian regions have not been able to get Methotrexate Ebewe, the injection solution from the Swiss company Sandoz (a division of the Novartis group) from pharmacies since the beginning of August 2021, said Polina Pchelnikova, vice president of Nadezhda Association. Sandoz is the largest supplier of methotrexate to the Russian market. According to RNC Pharma, which the publication cites, in just seven months of 2021, pharmaceutical companies delivered 2.2 million packages of the solution, 48% of them were shipped by Sandoz.
The Federal Service for Supervision in Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor) stated that in general there is currently no shortage of methotrexate with the international nonproprietary name. According to Roszdravnadzor, since the beginning of the year, 2.5 million packages (177 series in total) of INN methotrexat in the form of an injection solution have been introduced into civil circulation. According to the federal state information system for monitoring the movement of medicines for medical use, there is currently a sufficient amount of Methotrexate in the regions of the Russian Federation, Roszdravnadzor said.
