Pharmacy fad: the authorities plan to tighten the rules for the sale of medicines
Roszdravnadzor proposed to extend the mechanism of auto fines for medicines, follows from his letter to the CRPT. ("An honest sign"). This will allow violations to be recorded automatically, from the sale of expired drugs to deviations from marginal prices. Experts consider this approach to be more effective than traditional checks, however, they point to the possibility of technical failures and the ambiguity of procedures for appealing possible system errors. The CRPT, in turn, claims that such risks are eliminated due to a multi-level control system. About how the innovation can change the rules of the pharmacy market, see the Izvestia article.
How do the authorities intend to control the safety of medicines sold
The law on the automatic imposition of fines may be extended to medicines. Dmitry Parkhomenko, Deputy head of Roszdravnadzor, sent a letter with relevant proposals to the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT), the operator of the Honest Sign system. The document was reviewed by Izvestia, and its authenticity was confirmed by a federal official and an interlocutor familiar with the discussion.
The bill on car fines for the sale of expired goods and illegal tobacco products was adopted by the State Duma at the end of April 2026, and in May the document was signed by President Vladimir Putin. The law comes into force on September 1, 2026.
The principle of operation of the system is comparable to traffic cameras that issue fines to traffic violators, a source familiar with the discussion described the mechanism. The cash registers automatically transmit information about sales, and if a violation is detected — for example, the sale of expired goods or the sale of products at an incorrect price — the regulatory authority forms a resolution and sends it to the personal account of the infringing company on the Gosuslugi portal.
It is not known what amount of fines they want to prescribe for participants in the pharmacy market. So far, only the law regulates the sale of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, as well as consumer goods with a limited shelf life involved in labeling. It is assumed that the penalty for the sale of expired goods will amount to 10 thousand rubles for individual entrepreneurs (sole proprietors) for each unit, and 20 thousand rubles for legal entities.
It follows from Roszdravnadzor's letter that the proposed mechanism will strengthen control over selling prices for medicines and reduce the proportion of expired products in pharmacies. In its appeal, the agency asks the CRPT to provide a technical assessment of the possibility of introducing a mechanism of auto fines in the pharmacy segment. The document also notes that the initiative is being implemented on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. Izvestia sent a request to her office.
The draft of auto fines is primarily aimed at protecting consumers in segments where violations can be confirmed with digital data, a representative of the CRPT told Izvestia. If a decision is made at the state level, according to him, the operator is ready to discuss the technical implementation within its competence. Roszdravnadzor did not respond to the editorial's request.
What do the pharmaceutical industry think about this?
Nikolay Bespalov, Executive Director of RNC Pharma, considers this initiative to be more effective than manual control methods. According to him, any supervisory measures involving the visit of inspectors are "not a cheap pleasure." In addition, they are not always objective and allow for a "corruption component," the expert said. Automated systems will eliminate these problems, he believes.
Roszdravnadzor's proposal fits into the general trend towards digitalization of control over the turnover of labeled goods, said Anastasia Myrsina, Senior associate at Verba legal. Vadim Gorbunov, Deputy General Director for IT at Rigla-Zdravcity, regards it as mandatory. Taking into account the fact that the possibility of blocking the release of expired non-medicinal products has already been implemented, the distribution of the auto fine mechanism, according to the top manager, "in fact, does not change the rules." Medicines are not an ordinary consumer product, so the government's interest here is stronger than in many other retail segments, Anastasia Myrsina added.
At the same time, the top manager of a large pharmaceutical company wonders how the mechanism will work in case of possible system errors and "accidental" fines. According to him, it is not yet fully clear how the appeal procedure will be structured, because even the smooth operation of traffic cameras can have errors. For example, the traffic regulations have clear criteria and acceptable errors to minimize errors, Nikolai Bespalov added. Automation should be accompanied by procedural guarantees, Anastasia Myrsina agrees. According to her, a digital system cannot be a "black box" when a business receives a fine without understanding the essence of the violation and being able to verify it. Otherwise, such decisions can lead to property consequences without the actual fault of the market participant, she stressed.
An auto fine is technically impossible to get by accident, the representative of the CRPT objected. According to him, the system is built in such a way that foreclosure occurs if a business simultaneously ignores three levels of protection. The first is the information on the packaging (visual check of the expiration date by the pharmacist himself), the second is the data in the labeling system (when scanning the code, the status "expired" or "blocked" will be displayed in the program), the third is the information at the checkout (the software automatically blocks the receipt formation, and in order to complete the sale, the employee will have to consciously overcome this program ban), listed by the representative of the operator. Difficulties should not arise even if the Internet is turned off — the "Honest sign" is included in the "white list" of the Ministry of Finance, said the representative of the CRPT. This, according to him, guarantees access to key functions even in conditions of unstable communication.
According to the DSM Group, in January –April, retail sales of medicines in physical terms decreased by 5.1% compared to the same period in 2025 and amounted to 1.4 billion packages. At the same time, the market grew by 10.6% in monetary terms, to 668.8 billion rubles. The average package price increased by 16.5% over the same period and reached 457 rubles.
Delay and marginal prices are among the most obvious and easy-to-control parameters in pharmacy retail, said Nikolai Bespalov from RNC Pharma. Large distributors and pharmacy chains, as a rule, do not have systemic problems in these processes, the co-owner of the company in this segment is sure. In most pharmacies, according to him, the processes of acceptance, storage and sale have already been automated, and the control of expiration dates and selling prices for drugs from the list of vital and essential medicines (VED) is carried out "very carefully," Nikolai Bespalov agrees.
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