The illegal market for Ozempic in Russia has reached 1.5 billion rubles per year

Illegal turnover of the slimming agent "Ozempik" in Russia in January-October 2024 may amount to 1 to 1.5 billion rubles. This estimate was given to Izvestia by Nikolay Bespalov, Development Director of the analytical company RNC.

Official sales of the drug by the Danish company Novo Nordisk for the same period, according to DSM Group, amounted to only 562.8 million rubles. This is due to the fact that Novo Nordisk supplied the last batch of Ozempik to Russia in December 2023, after which it stopped exporting it.

As a result, the overwhelming part of the semaglutide-based drugs market was occupied by Russian analogs of Ozempika. Their total sales through pharmacies and supplies for hospitals for the first 10 months of 2024 amounted to more than 6.6 billion rubles, DSM Group said.

However, many consumers prefer the original drug. Therefore, illegal traders buy it in Turkey, Germany, Estonia, UAE and other countries - ostensibly for personal use - and then ship it to Russia for resale. In this case, the drug is sold without receipts through small networks of pharmacies and private individuals, Izvestia found out in the course of its investigation.

At the same time, experts note the risks of such a situation for the consumer.

"It is not recommended to purchase any drugs from hand. Especially dangerous when it comes to injectable drugs with a special temperature mode of storage", - explained the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection Evgeny Nifantiev.

Read the details in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

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