Expanding exports of domestically produced drugs is a priority for Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry, minister Anton Alikhanov said. The main buyers of Russian medicines include Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Algeria, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Tajikistan. Overall, Russian pharmaceutical products are exported annually to more than 150 countries, Alikhanov said.
“Last year exports grew more than 30% compared with the previous year, reaching around $1.3 billion,” Alikhanov told TASS news agency.
The minister added that his ministry, together with other federal authorities, has drawn up a list of 46 countries seen as promising markets for Russian drug exports. With these states, Moscow plans to negotiate mutual recognition of manufacturing compliance certificates under the Eurasian Economic Union’s Good Manufacturing Practice standards. The list includes countries from the EAEU, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The most sought-after Russian products on foreign markets are vaccines, antibiotics, nootropics, immunostimulants, monoclonal antibody-based drugs, and insulins, Alikhanov said.
Russia is carrying out numerous successful investment projects abroad, the minister noted. Examples include a 15-year supply agreement by drugmaker Geropharm to Belarus and the localisation of insulin production there. Thanks to technology transfer, a plant in Kazakhstan has begun producing finished dosage forms of innovative drugs.
R-Pharm, for its part, has set up production in Azerbaijan of a broad range of drugs, including antibiotics, antivirals, and cardiovascular and neurological medicines.
In Nicaragua, the Russian-Nicaraguan joint venture Mechnikov Latin American Institute of Biotechnology — established by Russia’s St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Sera — is carrying out filling, packaging and quality control of sterile drugs. Two vaccines produced by the venture have received WHO prequalification status and are supplied to more than five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Russian biotech company Biocad plans to set up a joint venture to operate in the Chinese market by 2030. The venture will focus on producing and launching gene therapy drugs and monoclonal antibodies targeting cancer and severe autoimmune diseases.
According to analysts at RNC Pharma, drug production in Russia has begun growing again after a downturn in 2025. In the first two months of this year, pharmaceutical companies operating in the country produced more than 630 million packs of finished drugs, a 6.7% increase from a year earlier. In value terms, production volume reached 164.9 billion roubles, up 13.8% from January–February 2025.