In 2023, India emerged as the top supplier of foreign medicines to the Russian market, surpassing Germany which had led the ranking in the previous years. This conclusion is drawn from data reported by RBC and based on figures from the analytics firm RNC Pharma.
Current data show that Russia imported 293.9 million packs of Indian medicines last year, marking a 3 percent rise from the year before.
Analysts observe that European drugmakers have reduced imports of original medicines into Russia, a shift driven by the availability of inexpensive generic alternatives and a narrower market footprint.
RNC Pharma notes that some foreign companies are releasing medicines with multiple analogues that stay competitive because of their lower prices. This dynamic influences the Russian market landscape, especially in the early parts of the year.
Earlier in the year, Viatris, an American company, halted the supply of Viagra to Russia due to competition with the large influx of generics. Japan’s Astellas withdrew the antibiotic Vilprafen from the Russian market, citing a strategic focus on global investments.
Bespalov, the development director at RNC Pharma, adds that after the start of the military operation in Ukraine a number of Western pharmaceutical firms took political steps to curb supplies of certain medicines to Russia.
Specifically, there were pauses in the import of Cialis from Eli Lilly and disruptions in the availability of Botox and related fillers from AbbVie.
Overall, Russia saw 1.8 billion packs of foreign medicines reach its market in 2023, up 1.5 percent from the previous year but still below the 2021 peak of 1.9 billion. Domestic medicines amounted to 4.1 billion packages.
As the situation evolved, several Western manufacturers announced the suspension of their marketing investments and clinical trials within Russia. Some, including BMS, Eli Lilly, and Orion Pharma, chose to exit the market entirely and pass ongoing work to regional partners. This shift has been widely noted in industry reporting and market analyses.
There were medicines that had to leave the Russian market and do not have direct equivalents in the country. This trend highlighted the evolving balance between international supply and local demand in the post crisis period.
In parallel, producers faced rising costs of manufacturing medicines within Russia, further influencing the market dynamics and the pricing landscape across the sector.