Prices for prescription drugs will grow by about 11-16 p. in the event that the government allows the sale of OTC medicines in supermarkets. This was reported in the Russian Association of Pharmacy Networks (RAAS). The organization told that the pharmaceutical companies intend to compensate for the losses they incur if the draft law of the Ministry of Industry and Trade approves the permission to sell drugs in stores without a prescription. The document until mid-January was on public discussion and, as they said in the department, will be submitted to the State Duma before March 1. According to the executive director of RAAS Nelli Ignatieva, the law may entail changes in the market of medical products - pharmacies will simply lose the competition to the outlets and lose some of the proceeds. Therefore, they will be forced to raise prices for prescription drugs. It is noted that the Ministry drafted this bill on behalf of First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Representative Shuvalov said that the legislative initiative involves selling only the simplest, basic drugs in the stores, for example, nasal sprays and antihistamines. "We need to increase the availability of such drugs and act in the interests of the consumer," the representative of the deputy prime minister told Izvestia,. He added that the consequences of the adoption of this law - the rise in prices in pharmacies - the subject of inspections by the antimonopoly service (FAS). It is known that the bill does not approve the Ministry of Health.

The department believes that, following the rise in prices for the drug market, counterfeit will pour in and, as a consequence, the overall decline in the quality of drugs. Moreover, to monitor the quality of drugs sold in grocery stores is very difficult. In turn, the head of the Pharmacy Guild, Elena Nevolina, noted that if the authorities allow shopping outlets to sell medicines, then the population will begin to engage in self-medication, which according to statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) is among the most frequent causes of death.