According to Valentina Matvienko, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the purchase of medicines for people with severe and rare diseases should be transferred to the federal level.
“Today, the regions buy one or two ampoules for patients with orphan diseases and pay a lot, no one is interested in supplying small batches. So the Ministry of Health should carry out centralized procurement of such medicines through special agreements with suppliers interested in the Russian market,” Matvienko said during an “open dialogue” with Anton Siluanov, Russian Minister of Finance. This is reported by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
According to the Speaker of the Federation Council, in St. Petersburg, thanks to the transition to centralized procurement, medicines have become 30% cheaper. Valentina Matvienko also believes that the transfer of drug procurement to the federal level will make it possible to keep records in respect of such patients.
She is sure that the Ministry of Health of the country “should be forced” to create a database, systematize and carry out centralized procurement through special agreements with suppliers interested in the Russian market. This work should be organized by the Ministry of Health.
According to Siluanov, the government of the Russian Federation has not transferred the issue of orphan diseases treatment from the regional level to the federal one. The Minister of Finance proposed to continue discussing this issue in the next budget cycle.
