OREANDA-NEWS  For the period from January 2020 to the end of September 2022, state customers spent 324.5 billion rubles on medicines used in the treatment of COVID-19 according to the temporary recommendations of the Ministry of Health, calculated at the request of RBC in the Headway Company, which monitors tender purchases in the pharmaceutical industry. The top five most purchased drugs for three incomplete years of the pandemic included four domestic drugs and one imported: favipiravir generics purchased for 43.6 billion rubles, rivaroxaban (Xarelto from Bayer) — 32.8 billion rubles, levilimab (Ilsira from Biocada) — 27.7 billion rubles, olokizumab ("Artlegia" from R-Pharma) — 26.6 billion rubles and enoxaparin sodium — 17.7 billion rubles.

Favipiravir is produced in Russia by several companies, including R-Pharm, Promomed and Kromis, it was the first drug registered under the accelerated procedure.

As of November 7, 2022, COVID-19 coronavirus infection was registered in 21.2 million people in Russia, 383 thousand people died. According to the Accounts Chamber, the federal budget expenditures to combat the direct and indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the most difficult year in terms of combating the pandemic in 2020 amounted to 2.856 trillion rubles.

The latest version of the COVID-19 treatment protocols still contains drugs with low efficacy or generally ineffective, including favipiravir, umifenovir (Arbidol) and interferon, says Ilya Yasny, head of the scientific expertise of the Inbio Ventures Foundation. The inclusion of drugs in the national treatment protocols for COVID-19 has not always been transparent, according to one of the players in the Russian pharmaceutical market. The Russian recommendations were formed based on the experience of using drugs in practice, and not international protocols, explains Sergey Shulyak, General Director of the DSM Group marketing agency. "Effective treatment regimens for coronavirus have not been developed in the world for a long time either, and protectionism of local manufacturers when including drugs in treatment regimens took place both here and abroad," he adds.

Favipiravir was originally registered as a drug for atypical (non-seasonal) influenza under the Avigan brand in Japan, its patent protection expired in 2019.

At the same time, Promomed, which produces the generic favipiravir, the drug Areplivir, in response to a request from RBC, reported that this is an innovative drug. The company is also confident that the decline in the incidence of COVID-19 will not lead to a drop in interest in medicines from it. The company also referred to the innovative drugs "Skyvira" and "Esperavir" — generics of foreign nirmatrelvir (the original Paxlovid drug from Pfizer) and molnupiravir (Lagevrio from MSD), respectively. Both of these drugs have shown the greatest effectiveness abroad and in the spring of this year were recommended by WHO for treatment when the first symptoms of COVID-19 appear. The drugs were included in the Russian recommendations only in August of this year.