The Khoroshevsky interdistrict investigative Department of the Investigative Department for the Northwestern Administrative District of the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Moscow has opened a criminal case on the sale of substandard and unregistered medicines. The fraudsters purchased drugs abroad and imported them to Russia, where they sold them in Moscow pharmacies.
According to investigators, no later than November 2024 the defendants entered into a criminal conspiracy to sell counterfeit medicines in Russia. In total, the accused, who are employees of one of the capital’s pharmaceutical companies, illegally sold unregistered medicines worth over 100,000 rubles.
According to Izvestia, the scammers offered prescription medications, including Ozempic from the Danish Novo Nordisk and Orgalutran from the Dutch Organon.
Law enforcement officers seized all counterfeit goods, mobile phones, and about 17 million rubles from the pharmacies. As part of the investigation of the criminal case, it was possible to establish the involvement of two persons, and they were charged with the offence. The investigation intends to petition the court for a pre-trial detention measure for the accused.
Despite the rise in sales of domestic Ozempic biosimilars in Russia, consumers remain interested in the original drug. For instance, in January 2025, Yandex users searched for Ozempic 415,800 times. The best–selling generic version of the drug, Geropharm’s Semavik, was searched 417,400 times during the specified period. Big Pharma decided not to promote these products on the Russian market in 2022-2023. However, Nikolai Bespalov, Development Director at RNC Pharma, said that the original drug can still be found in pharmacies. It is ordered from abroad via social media and other sales channels. According to him, the grey market of the drug does not exceed 80,000 packages.
