The sales of remote medicine in Russia have increased nearly tenfold since 2020 and are expected to reach 100 billion rubles by 2024, as reported by Deputy Health Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergei Glagolev. This growth is attributed to the successful handling of over-the-counter drugs, which has led to the initiation of an experiment in remote trading of prescription drugs in three Russian regions in 2023.
“Today we see a very rapid growth in [remote] sales volumes, if it was about 5.5 billion rubles in 2020, during the aggressive Covid pandemic, then in 2023 the sales volume amounted to 56.7 billion rubles, an almost tenfold increase. Seeing the figures for the first quarter – 26 billion, we predict that this year it should still reach 100 billion,” Glagolev said.
He stated that the successful experience with over-the-counter drugs has paved the way for launching an experiment in 2023 in three regions of the Russian Federation for the remote trading of prescription drugs. Unlike over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs require the establishment of a comprehensive electronic document flow system involving medical institutions, pharmacies, and patients with electronic prescriptions. “We anticipate that within two years we will have gathered enough data to evaluate the impact of these measures on medical care,” Glagolev emphasized.