Banning the sale of dietary supplements in pharmacies: a double-edged sword

They will correct it by three letters
Biologically active additives are going to be removed from pharmacy shelves
Galina Papernaya, "Time of News", 03/15/2010
Published on the website "Pharma2020"

In the near future, such familiar products as hematogen, bifidumbacterin, vitamin pills and chewing lozenges, as well as all kinds of variations on the theme of fish oil, may disappear from the assortment of Russian pharmacies. The other day, at a meeting with deputies of the State Duma, Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Market and Medical Equipment of the Ministry of Health and Social Development Diana Mikhailova and Acting head of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Field of Health and Social Development (Roszdravnadzor) Elena Telnova confirmed that the heads of domestic health care consider it appropriate to introduce an amendment to the draft law "On Circulation of medicines" prohibiting sell biologically active additives (dietary supplements) in pharmacies.

"Dietary supplements are not medicines and do not pass the appropriate quality examination, our ministry is responsible for treatment and medicines, but not for dietary supplements, which are now mistakenly associated with medicines by many citizens. Therefore, we propose to remove dietary supplements from the list of pharmacy products," the Ministry of Health and Social Development explained to Time News the meaning of the proposed amendments. It is noteworthy that a similar position is held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, whose officials at the end of last year proposed to withdraw not only dietary supplements, but also part of the non-prescription drug range outside pharmacies. "We consider it appropriate to start selling dietary supplements and some other products, now distributed mainly through pharmacies, in supermarkets. You can start with one or two regions as a pilot project. But for now this project has been postponed until the adoption of a new law on medicines in the second and third readings," the Ministry of Industry and Trade told Vremya Novosti.

This department recalled that just a few months ago, Roszdravnadzor was categorically against any experiments with the pharmacy assortment, including they did not want to hear anything about the possibility of selling the simplest over-the-counter medicines in non-core stores. Then the Ministry of Industry and Trade was forced to abandon its idea. But after the recent change of the leadership of Roszdravnadzor, the position of the supervisory authority has radically changed.

By the way, the second reading of the long-suffering law "On the circulation of medicines", already overgrown with many amendments, may take place this week. Therefore, market participants tend to believe that since such an initiative of the Ministry of Health and Social Development was voiced in the Duma, it can be considered practically legalized. In any case, they are already preparing to calculate losses, and some are considering options for leaving the market. "Manufacturers, more precisely, only Russian manufacturers, whose products now occupy a large part of the dietary supplements market, will sharply reduce production," Natalia Prokopyeva, head of the pharmaceutical company Evalar, told Vremya Novosti. This company ranks first in sales in the domestic dietary supplements market, its products occupy a quarter of the market. According to Ms. Prokopyeva, the adoption of the amendment will inevitably lead to the collapse of the supplements market, since throughout the 20-year history of existence in Russia it has developed in a single direction: from completely wild direct sales in the spirit of "do you want to lose weight?" before the civilized offer on the shelves of pharmacies. It was the rejection of network marketing and voluntary self-restraint, which is associated with numerous specialized inspections of any product presented in pharmacies, that allowed dietary supplements to gain the trust of customers, the manufacturer believes. "Now they trust us because they understand that pharmacies have very strict entrance control. In grocery stores, this is out of the question, the maximum expiration dates can be controlled there," Ms. Prokopyeva is sure.

"With the transfer of dietary supplements to supermarkets, the system of control over them decreases, and it is the legalization and strengthening of control in this market that the state has been seeking in recent years," confirms Tatiana Pilat, professor of the Department of Occupational Diseases at the Institute of Advanced Training of Doctors at the Pirogov Medical and Surgical Center and concurrently president of the non–profit partnership of dietary supplements manufacturers. Supplements, according to her, are needed by people to compensate for the deficiency of a substance in food. "Unlike food, some biological additives have contraindications," Ms. Pilat told Time News. – But how can a person find out in a grocery store whether he can take this or that dietary supplement or not? Who can give him such a consultation?"

To date, the market of pharmaceutical dietary supplements in Russia is estimated by experts at $ 1 billion per year. But this is exactly half of the amount of supplements that are actually sold in the country, says David Melik-Huseynov, Director of Marketing Research at the Farmexpert Research Center. Everything else is still sold on the streets, as well as through call centers that are gaining popularity (which are usually created for only a few days - for example, while a new product is being advertised). "If pharmacies cease to be a place of sale of dietary supplements, then this will affect their quality," Mr. Melik-Huseynov believes. – There will be much more falsifications."

But if it is theoretically possible to protect the consumer from fakes and poisoning without pharmacies, then it will not be easy to save the pharmacies themselves from ruin in the new conditions. According to David Melik-Huseynov, this is a double blow from the state to pharmaceutical retail, because literally just now the Ministry of Health and Social Development has developed a unified methodology for calculating the maximum level of trade allowances for vital and essential medicines. "The non–medicinal assortment gives 40% of the pharmacy turnover, about 15% of them are dietary supplements," the expert of "Time of News" said. The loss of these revenues is very significant for the pharmacy business in modern conditions.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru15.03.2010