Russia increases its budget for antiretroviral drugs by 20% in 2018

The Russian Ministry of Health wants to prevent disruptions in the supplies of antiretroviral drugs. This year, the budget of the Ministry allocated 21.6 billion rubles for this purpose, which is 20% more than in 2017 (17.8 billion rubles), according to the press service of the Ministry of Health.

At the end of 2016, Russian authorities introduced the system of centralized procurement of drugs for HIV patients in order to purchase them through the Ministry of Health rather than the regions. This allowed to reduce and stabilize the prices. However, the reforms led to disruption in the supplies of drugs, which forced some patients to interrupt their antiretroviral therapy. This year, the gaps in the system were eliminated, and no disruptions are expected.

Also, from January 1, 2017, Russia has in place a register of HIV-positive individuals. It allows to forecast the required amount of medicines for specific region. The register was filled over the year and currently includes information on 714.3 thousand patients. The data were collected and entered into the register by the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia, and regional authorities.

In H2 2017, the Reserve Fund of the Russian Federation allocated additional 4 billion rubles for patients already receiving the antiretroviral therapy. At that time, it was reported that a year of such therapy costs 83 thousand rubles. Therefore, 21.6 billion rubles are required to provide the treatment to about 260 thousand patients.