The State Duma rejected the bill on the placement of prices of medicines on packages

The State Duma has rejected in the first reading a bill that would have required pharmaceutical manufacturers to indicate the maximum retail price (MRP) for drugs from the Vital and Essential Drugs List (VED) on their packaging.

"It should be taken into account that... draft mock-ups of the primary packaging and secondary (consumer) packaging of a medicinal product are attached to the application for state registration of the respective drug. A drug's inclusion in the VED occurs after its registration. Thus, after the manufacturers' maximum selling prices are set for drugs included in the VED, it would be necessary to submit documents for re-registration of the drug, as the mock-up of the secondary (consumer) packaging would need to be changed. This could lead to both an increase in drug prices (as manufacturers would start factoring in the costs of re-registration) and the periodic 'disappearance' from the market of some drugs included in the VED due to the lengthy re-registration process," states the review of the bill by the State Duma Committee on Health Protection.

Furthermore, the adoption of the bill would require manufacturers to create different packaging, as different maximum mark-up sizes are established in the regions. This would entail additional expenses for manufacturers and, accordingly, lead to an increase in the cost of the drugs themselves.

The bill, which stipulated that prices for VED drugs must be printed on the packaging, was submitted for consideration to the State Duma in late March 2016 by former deputies of the lower house of parliament, Vasily Shvetsov and Irinchey Mathanov, from the A Just Russia faction. This proposal arose due to numerous complaints from Russians about inflated prices for VED drugs.

As Shvetsov stated at the time, the adoption of the bill would allow for better control with the participation of the buyer themselves, and would enable manufacturers and pharmacies to earn from drug sales, as they could potentially refuse the services of "numerous intermediaries" if the bill were passed.

However, in early November, the Duma's Committee on Health Protection recommended rejecting the bill that would oblige manufacturers to mark the maximum retail price on medicine packaging.