The Russian manufacturer tried to raise the price of the drug eight times

The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District has upheld the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) to refuse approval of the maximum selling price for the drug Clotrimazole, as applied for by LLC Anzhero-Sudzhensk Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant. The reason for the FAS refusal was an eightfold overstatement of the price for the drug, which is included in the list of Vital and Essential Drugs (VED).

"We found that in order to achieve a tenfold price increase, the manufacturer withdrew the previously registered price for the drug (18 rubles) less than a month before submitting documents to register an inflated price (183 rubles). But this attempt by the manufacturer to raise prices for the drug was successfully prevented," explained Maxim Degtyarev, Deputy Head of the Office for Control of the Social Sphere and Trade of the Russian FAS.

The FAS initiated a case against Jodas Expoim, FC Pharmakoppola, and Saticom in March 2016 on grounds of violating Clause 2, Part 1, Article 11 of the federal law "On Protection of Competition." The defendants admitted to concluding an anti-competitive agreement, using the leniency program, the FAS notes. The notes to Article 14.32 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation state that a legal entity that is the first to voluntarily report a cartel to the FAS will be exempt from liability for participating in it. However, at the time of the entity's application to the FAS with information about the collusion, the regulator should not have been aware of the offense or possessed the relevant documents. Entities admitting to the offense second and third receive the minimum fine.

Clotrimazole is used in the therapy of fungal diseases. The cost of this cream in Moscow pharmacies varies from 18 to 161 rubles.

A month ago, the antimonopoly service also completed the first stage of monitoring prices for drugs from the "Seven Nosologies" program list, comparing them with prices for the same drugs abroad. As a result, several dozen drugs were identified that are more expensive in Russia than in some other countries.

On October 12, 2016, during a scheduled meeting with the government, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that cases of severe, "multiple-fold," price gouging are being recorded in state drug procurements. The head of state particularly emphasized that special services should deal with this issue, paying special attention not only to pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers but also to officials responsible for market regulation.