Timophey Nizhegorodtsev: modernizing the drug pricing methods creates conditions to reduce prices for the most expensive drugs

FAS insists on including price objectification measures in the pricing techniques and creating conditions that facilitate entry to the market of non-expensive drugs

Speaking at the session “2017 results on the pharmaceutical markets” of 2017 RBK Pharma Forum: Innovations, investments, forecasts”, Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophey Nizhegorodtsev, pointed out: “Modernizing the drug pricing methods  will simplify document flow, objectify prices, reduce the number of formal reasons to decline documents, transfer price registration to the non-discriminatory basis introducing the indicative approach, and will create conditions for reducing prices for the most expensive prices, support manufacturing non-expensive drugs and stimulate their market entry”.

FAS is insisting on including the following in the drug pricing technique:

Dependence of the decreasing coefficient (Cd) for generics on the price group of the reference drug, granting advantages to the first generics, cheap drugs (less than 500 RUB) and bioanalogues

Obligation of foreign manufacturers to reduce registered prices of they go down in the reference countries, and reduction of prices for the relevant generics

Head of FAS specialized Department pointed out: “For 95% drugs Cd will go down or stay at the same level, at the same time for 5% drugs, 20 000 исвыше 100 000 рублей, Cd will be from 33% - 65%, and for bioanalogues of the same price category – from 16 to 45%”, clarified Head of FAS specialized Department.

Timophey Nizhegorodtsev outlined the current FAS work with the Ministry of Health Care on forming the Calculator of the initial (maximum) contract price in drug procurement and organizing an information-and-analytical system to monitor and control drug procurement (IAS). IAS will rely on the Unified Reference Book: a catalogue of medicinal drugs based the data from the State Register of Medicinal Drugs and the Price Register.

Currently information in the Registers is not unified, contains numerous technical errors, and dosages are not organized in the equivalent groups, which may restrict competition in procurement and increase the costs of the health carte system for medicinal drugs.