Russia’s state medicine procurement spending rises 43% to 676.1 billion rubles
Russian state medicine procurement reached 676.1 billion rubles in the first half of 2026, up 43% year on year, according to Cursor data reported by Kommersant. Federal program tenders more than doubled to 176.2 billion rubles, while procurement from sole suppliers rose 83%.
Procurement spending accelerates
Russia’s state purchases of medicines increased 43% year on year to 676.1 billion rubles in the first half of 2026, according to a report by analytics company Cursor cited by Kommersant. The increase followed a weaker 2025, when Cursor calculated that the pharmaceutical tender market had contracted 6.6% to 1.151 trillion rubles.
Contracting authorities announced 277,300 medicine tenders worth 710.4 billion rubles between January and June. Vademecum reported that this represented growth of 27% in value and 7% in physical volume. When procedures announced in late 2025 but completed in 2026 are included, authorities conducted 286,200 tenders with a combined value of 768.6 billion rubles.
Failed tenders decline as federal programs expand
Of the procedures conducted during the period, 174,200 tenders worth 600.8 billion rubles were completed successfully. Another 102,100 procedures valued at 166.2 billion rubles failed. The share of unsuccessful tenders declined to 22% from 25%, while Kommersant said average budget savings from competitive procedures were 3.7%, compared with about 4% a year earlier.
Federal procurement under state programs recorded the sharpest expansion. Authorities announced 578 tenders worth 176.2 billion rubles, more than twice the 81.8 billion rubles registered a year earlier, according to Vademecum. Signed contracts reached 155.4 billion rubles, and the value-based share of failed federal procedures fell to 13% from 20%. The largest spending areas included the high-cost diseases program, the Circle of Kindness fund, medicines for HIV and viral hepatitis, and the national vaccination schedule.
Sole-source contracts and supplier concentration rise
Purchases from sole suppliers increased 83% in value to 58.5 billion rubles even as the number of such contracts fell 16%. Cursor attributed the divergence to large contracts concluded within the federal centralized medicine supply system. This marks a reversal from 2025, when sole-source procurement declined 28% and federal purchases under state programs fell to 203.7 billion rubles.
AstraZeneca recorded the largest supply value among marketing authorization holders at 34.2 billion rubles, followed by Roche at 29.9 billion rubles and Novartis at 22.5 billion rubles. The fastest year-on-year gains were reported for Tuteur S.A.S.I.F.I.A., up 2,088%; Microgen, up 459%; and R-Pharm, up 194%. Among distributors, Pharmstandard, Irwin and R-Pharm jointly accounted for 24% of the state procurement market. The combined share of the ten largest suppliers rose to 42% from 36%. Moscow, excluding federal procurement, led the regions by absolute purchasing volume, followed by St. Petersburg and the Moscow region. Kaluga region posted the fastest growth at 228%, ahead of Nizhny Novgorod region at 42% and Krasnodar region at 41%.