OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2010. In 2009 - 2010 regional offices of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) initiated 381 cases against various pharmacy networks throughout Russia. Of them 367 cases were initiated for the signs of violating pricing procedures, 12 cases - for the signs of entering into agreements and exercising competition-restricting concerted actions, and 2 cases - for the facts of imposing unfavourable conditions upon counteragents, fixing different prices for the same goods. The pharmacies were fined around 11 million Rubles, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Cases were initiated upon the findings of drug prices monitoring in 2009. FAS Russia and its regional offices analyzed pricing policy of 945 pharmacy networks.

The list of monitored medicines included:

- 100 most popular medicines (determined by the physical volume of retail sales in the Russian Federation);

- 24 medicines from the List of essential medicines;

- 58 Russian-made medicines.

According to FAS Russia, in 2009 the average wholesale (purchasing) price of one package of drugs, monitored by FAS Russia, increased in general by 20.8%, while the average retail price showed slightly lower growth - by 18.8%. It means that pharmacies' yield decreased as retail mark-ups reduced due to tightened government control over pricing procedures and reduction of the maximum retail mark-ups in the many constituent territories of the Russian Federation, that are set by normative legal acts.

FAS Russia's monitoring confirm that prices of imported drugs went up much higher that Russian drugs. In 2009 prices of Russian drugs increased only by 8.6%, but imported medicines became considerably more expensive - by 23.4%.

In 2009 the highest price surge was observed for such Russian drugs as Alloxol (by 376.9%), Mucaltin (by247.9%), cough lozenges (by 123.2%) and Glycine (by 111.6%). However, in all instances increase of retail prices was slightly behind the rise of purchasing (wholesale) prices, and, therefore, was related to attempts of retailers to compensate their increased expenses for purchasing drugs.

According to FAS Russia, retail prices for the medicines included in the List of essential medicines are increasing at a lower rate than other drugs. Within a year prices for essential medicines in Russia have grown up on average by 10.9%, while prices for other drugs have increased by 21.2%.

The highest absolute price rise in Rubles in 2009 was registered for such drugs included in the List of essential medicines, as Panangin (by 43.13 Rubles), Tavegil (by 30.89 Rubles), No-Shpa (drotaverine) (by 28.43 Rubles) and Suprastin (by 23,88 Rubles), as well as for drugs not included in the List of essential medicines, such as Lioton 1000 (by 120.9 Rubles), Essentiale Forte (by 114.33 Rubles), Magne В6 (by 106.44 Rubles) and Bioparox (by 88.23 Rubles).

FAS Russia's findings show that average retail prices for monitored drugs differ more than twofold in different Russian regions. The highest average price was registered in the Chukotka Autonomous District (161.76 Rubles), and the lowest - in the Kabardino - Balkaria Republic (70.41 Rubles).