Provision of Pharmaceuticals in Russia: Current Situation and Prospects for the Future

Nikolay A. Avksentev – Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Vladimir S. Nazarov – Deputy Director of Science of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Deputy Head of the International Health Laboratory and Its Reform of the Gaidar Institute (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

An analysis of the consumption of prescription pharmaceuticals and the structure of pharmaceutical care costs has demonstrated that the availability of pharmaceuticals is still low, and that households have to pay for more than half of those costs. It has also been revealed that availability of pharmaceuticals varies broadly across different Russian territories. Many of the existing pharmaceutical care programs have to deal with issues that have to do with lack of proper planning in the implementation of government purchases. This article suggests several pharmaceutical care models that target all citizens without any exceptions; aim for the placement of a broad assortment of prescription pharmaceuticals on the government provision list, with due regard for their efficacy; rely on an independent control of the reasonability of prescription of pharmaceuticals in each case; imply a cost-effective organization of the pharmaceutical provision system, and the introduction of differentiated co-payment programs for the population.

Key words: medicine, medicine provision, medicine accessibility, state purchases of medicines.