Russian patients will receive a domestic myeloma drug for the first time

The Russian biotech company Biocad has applied to participate in the federal auction for the supply of daratumumab, a drug used for the treatment of multiple myeloma. The auction result has been published on the public procurement website. This will be the first delivery of domestic daratumumab within the framework of federal drug provision.

The customer is the Federal Center for Planning and Organization of Drug Provision for Citizens of the Russian Ministry of Health. The purchase is carried out as part of a program to provide patients with diseases requiring expensive treatment.

One of the auctions provides for the supply of daratumumab in the form of a concentrate for the preparation of an infusion solution of 20 mg/ml in 5 ml vials. The initial maximum contract price is 95.6 million rubles, and the purchase volume is 31,983 ml of the drug.

In addition, the Federal Center announced another, larger auction for daratumumab in 20 ml vials. Its initial maximum price is 1.83 billion rubles, and the declared volume is 613,037 ml. Applications for this purchase will be accepted until August 17th. Thus, the combined initial cost of the two announced purchases of daratumumab is approaching 1.93 billion rubles.

"Patients in Russia should be able to receive the necessary treatment, and the state should purchase the drug at a fair and competitive price. The emergence of domestic daratumumab creates an alternative on the market and allows for more efficient use of healthcare system funds, including providing therapy to a larger number of patients," commented Biocad.

The participation of a domestic manufacturer in the federal auction means that now several suppliers can potentially compete for the daratumumab contract. Biocad emphasizes that the effect of such competition should be assessed not only through a direct reduction in the purchase price of one drug.

"Our goal is to improve the quality of cancer care in the country"

Anastasia Mochalova, MD, oncologist, about the latest approaches to cancer treatment and the development of a social educational project for doctors and patients

"Reducing the purchase cost allows the state to provide more patients with treatment. It is important for us that the Russian drug does not just appear on the market, but is actually available to patients," noted Biocad.

In May, Izvestia wrote about the situation surrounding the Russian drug's entry into the market. Daratumumab belongs to expensive anticancer drugs. In 2025, the volume of its government purchases in Russia, according to the Headway Company, exceeded 18 billion rubles, and almost all of these funds go to foreign companies Genmab and Johnson & Johnson.

The Russian drug Daratumia was registered in August 2025 and became the first domestic biosimilar of daratumumab registered in Russia. The manufacturer was ready to start deliveries to the market, but was waiting for March 2026, when the patent of the Danish Genmab would expire.

Nevertheless, Genmab's patent protection was extended until 2031 on the basis of Eurasian patent No. EA037929, obtained under a separate application. Biocad is challenging the extension of the validity of this patent in Russia in the Intellectual Property Court. The relevant case was initiated in March 2026.

In early June, Rospatent invalidated another Eurasian Genmab patent in Russia, No. EA034877, which protected a method for combination therapy of CD38-expressing tumors. As noted by Kommersant, the agency concluded that the treatment method proposed in the patent does not contain sufficient novelty to obtain patent protection. Experts drew attention to the potential economic effect of the Russian drug. The cost of comparable forms of the domestic product is about 16% lower than the cost of the original daratumumab.

"For comparable forms of release, the registered prices for the Biocad drug are about 16% lower. This is quite a significant saving, which allows saving from 2.8 to 3 billion rubles per year only within the existing volume of public procurement," Nikolai Bespalov, Director of Development at RNC Pharma, noted in a conversation with Izvestia.

Multiple myeloma is a malignant blood disease: a pathological protein that is produced in this disease affects internal organs, bones, kidneys, and also leads to severe anemia. According to oncologist, hematologist Anna Goncharuk, the disease is chronic and incurable, however, against the background of therapy, it is possible to control its course.

In Russia, three to six cases of multiple myeloma per 100,000 population are registered annually. The disease is more often diagnosed in people over 40-50 years of age.