>>4343647Russia faces ongoing and localized pharmaceutical shortages driven by Western sanctions, supply chain disruptions, soaring logistics costs, and the diversion of state funding toward defense.
Key Areas and Causes of Shortages
* Specific and Vital Medications: Acute deficits have impacted treatments for chronic and life-threatening conditions, including HIV/AIDS medications (such as Lamivudine), nephrology and dialysis drugs (such as Parsabiv, Eralfon, and Mirtsera), basic medical supplies like saline, and certain pediatric vaccines.
* Impact of Sanctions and Import Dependency: Russia remains heavily reliant on imported finished drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), with a large share historically sourced from Western nations and Europe. While humanitarian exemptions exist for medicines, logistics, payment restrictions, and corporate exits have severely hampered regular supply channels
* Economic Pressures and Price Ceilings: Strict government price controls (ceiling prices) on essential drugs have forced some domestic and foreign manufacturers to halt production of low-margin items-like basic saline-because they cannot profitably operate under rising production costs.
* Regional Disparities: Shortages vary significantly by region. While major urban hubs like Moscow and St. Petersburg experience periodic disappearances or price spikes of specialty drugs, smaller or less-funded regions suffer more acute and prolonged gaps in public healthcare provisioning