The American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly will transfer its Russian activities to the Swiss Swixx Biopharma and leave the country. On this subject writing health magazine Vademecum, citing an informed source who says that the supply of all drugs produced by the manufacturer to Russia will continue.
Telegram channel “Right to health”, the first reports about the final withdrawal of the American pharmaceutical company from the Russian market, could not name the time of the transfer of activity.
Swixx Biopharma is a Swiss pharmaceutical company representing subsidiaries or separate business units of multinational biopharmaceutical companies in countries or therapeutic areas where they are not themselves active. Its activities are concentrated in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
To Swixx Biopharma’s subsidiary, Swix Healthcare LLC, in June 2022 in the same way translated The American pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) owns its Russian operations.
Eli Lilly supplies a wide range of drugs for various purposes to Russia:
tadalafil-based “Cialis” for the treatment of erectile dysfunction (supplies have been discontinued); antidepressant “Cymbalta”; “Strattera” from ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder); insulins (“Humalog”, “Humulin”); antidiabetic drug “Trulicity” (dulaglutide); cancer drugs Zenlistik (abemacylib), Cyramza (ramucirumab), Alimta (pemetrexed), Gemzar (gemcitabine).
In 2020, Eli Lilly’s share in the Russian pharmaceutical market was 0.52% in rubles, the company ranked 49th in this indicator, and its sales reached 11.6 billion rubles. A year earlier, the company sold its products in Russia for almost 15 billion rubles. This pharmaceutical giant produces drugs for cancer and diabetes patients and is the world’s largest producer of insulin.
In the spring of 2022, after the start of the military operation in Ukraine, Eli Lilly suspended investments in its Russian market in the spring and refused to launch new clinical trials, as well as announcement on the temporary halt in the supply of “non-essential” medicines (so far this has mainly affected Cialis).
“We have suspended all investments, advertising activities and new clinical trials in Russia, as well as the export of non-essential medicines to this country. Our activity in Russia is now solely focused on ensuring that people suffering from diseases such that cancer and diabetes continue to get the Lilly medicines they need,” the company said at the time.
In August 2022, Russian diabetes patients began to report a shortage of insulin in pharmacies, however, manufacturers did not confirm the existence of such a problem.
In early 2023, Roszdravnadzor acknowledged that “due to increased demand for certain drugs, there may currently be temporary delays in delivering the required number of drugs to pharmacies due to logistical issues from suppliers and manufacturers.”
