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Coronavirus pandemic

Revenue of Russian pharmacies up 20% in February — media

The volume of the commercial drug market amounted to $1.26 bln in retail prices, according to Izvestia

© Yevgeny Sofroneyev/TASS

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Revenue of Russian pharmacies in February 2020 was 20% higher than in February last year. The volume of the commercial drug market amounted to 100.9 bln rubles ($1.26 bln) in retail prices, Izvestia newspaper reported on Monday, citing data provided in the monthly report of DSM Group agency.

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According to the newspaper, in real terms, the drug market increased by 7.7% to 457.7 mln packages. At the same time, the average cost of a pack of medicine in the same period increased by 11.6% to 220 rubles ($2.75). According to the newspaper, in February the market structure in price segments changed in favor of expensive drugs relative to the same month a year earlier, while the weight of other segments in the market decreased.

Izvestia clarified that growth of drug sales was not only due to respiratory and viral infections -Russians in general began to buy more drugs in almost all categories. As for medicine for the treatment of diseases of the respiratory system, in February 2020 they were higher than last year by 20.1% in money terms and amounted to 13.6 bln rubles ($170.34 mln). At the same time, in real terms, sales growth was 8.6%.

At the same time, there has been an increase in sales of cardiovascular drugs - by 25.8% to 14 bln rubles ($175.35 mln), medicine for digestive system - by 21.7% to 18.5 bln rubles ($231.7 mln), drugs from diseases of the nervous system - by 16.8% to 11.1 bln rubles ($139.02 mln). In addition, sales of dietary supplements have also increased, including vitamins, sedatives and weight loss products, to 6.1 bln rubles ($76.4 mln) in February 2020, which is 31.2% more than in February 2019.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in more than 190 countries, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. So far, more than 735,000 people have been infected around the world and over 34,000 have died, and over 156,000 have recovered. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public informed about the coronavirus situation.

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