Izvestia reported on the shortage of widely used antibiotics in Russia

In at least 25 regions of Russia, drugs containing the active ingredient roxithromycin have disappeared from pharmacies, Izvestia writes based on data from regional pharmacies.

The newspaper found a shortage of three more similar drugs: pharmacies in 12 regions of the country do not have drugs with erythromycin, six regions do not have clarithromycin, and five regions do not have azithromycin. As Izvestia writes, these are widely used antibiotics . All four drugs are in short supply in Dagestan, Crimea, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia and other regions.

In the first eight months of 2024 , fewer packages of drugs containing roxithromycin were introduced into civil circulation than in the same period last year: 10.3 thousand versus 11.04 thousand packages, according to calculations by the analytical company RNC Pharma. In January-August this year, 787.7 thousand packages of drugs containing erythromycin were delivered to pharmacies, while last year, in the same period, 921.6 thousand.

This year, medicines containing erythromycin from the Russian companies Avva Rus and Binnopharm did not enter civil circulation, and medicines from the Indian Sun Pharma and the Tyumen Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant were supplied in half the amount - 231.2 thousand packages against 374.5 thousand and 60 thousand against 144.5 thousand.

Sales of medicines in pharmacies in a number of regions have ceased due to the transition to other, more modern medicines, suggested Nikolai Bespalov, DIRECTOR of Development at RNC Pharmа. In his opinion, these antibiotics "are moving into the category of niche ones, which are used for individual diseases or prescribed to patients with certain characteristics, where the use of other drugs is associated with risks."

The drugs, the shortage of which was noticed in Russian pharmacies, are widely used to treat the genitourinary system, skin and soft tissues, and are also prescribed for Lyme disease, therapist Svetlana Kanevskaya told the newspaper. These drugs are replaceable and their absence is not a disaster, confirmed therapist and pulmonologist of the DOCTOR Aleksandrovsky Medical Center Arutyun Vardanyan.

The listed antibiotics have long been known to medicine and are successfully used against infectious diseases, such as pneumonia or tonsillitis, Marina Berezhnaya, a general practitioner and HEAD of the emergency and urgent care department at the European Medical Center, told the publication . “Although they are widely used in medical practice, this does not mean that other antibiotics cannot be used to combat infectious diseases,” she added.

At the same time, doctor Pavel Khoroshev noted that while these drugs are replaceable, there are cases when they are needed: “For example, when fighting the Helicobacter pylori bacterium, which in 98.5% of cases leads to gastritis and peptic ulcers, clarithromycin is prescribed. There are no analogues in this case.”