In autumn, the demand for insulin drugs in Russian pharmacies increased again, according to RBC. Analysts of the DSM Group marketing agency found out that 97,700 packages of the hypoglycemic drugs were sold in September (in monetary terms, it is 147.7 million rubles), which is a 15% growth in packages and 18% in monetary terms compared to the previous month.
Representatives of Megapteka (the aggregator that unites 25,00 outlets in 78 Russian regions) noted that sales of all insulin in packages increased almost 2.5 times y-o-y in September–October, and for the January–October period, the growth is sevenfold.
The greatest demand was noted for the most expensive, analog insulins NovoRapid (an increase of 17 times) and Tresiba (11 times) manufactured by Novo Nordisk. A representative of Chestny Znak (Honest Mark), the single digital labeling system operator, noted that in the three quarters of 2022, sales of insulins increased by 55% y-o-y, to 7.6 m packages. He believes that Russia has stocks of insulin to last for nine months, and no shortage of the drug is expected.
Sergey Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group, believes that sales growth may indicate problems with the issue of subsidized prescriptions due to some companies’ failure to perform their contracts concluded under public procurement competitive tenders. According to him, the problems may be due to low initial maximum contract prices, which are formed on the basis of last year’s auctions and the maximum registered prices for generics.
