In the first quarter of 2021, pharmacy chains throughout Russia sold drugs and related products for 351.8 billion rubles, which is 11.6% less than in the same period last year. This information follows from the data of the pharmaceutical market auditor DSM Group, which came to Izvestia’s disposal on Friday, April 16.
A slight increase in the revenue of the networks from the sale of drugs in DSM Group was recorded only in January – 87.9 billion rubles (+ 3.5% against the same month of 2020).
“Analysts call this a” residual “from high sales in December last year,” – said in the message.
The weakest month in the first quarter of this year was March: the pharmaceutical retail revenue fell by 26.1% <...> to 124 billion rubles.
Last year, in January-March, the chains, on the contrary, increased their sales by 25%, to 398.6 billion rubles. In March 2020, against the backdrop of the rush for medications due to the lockdown and the start of the pandemic, pharmacies sold drugs and parapharmaceuticals worth 167.8 billion rubles, showing an increase of 50.5% in March 2019.
In July last year, DSM Group reported that against the background of the rise in prices for drugs, the revenue of pharmacies also increased significantly. So, in the first half of the year, they sold drugs for 557.9 billion rubles, which is 13.9% more than in the same period of 2019.
Imported drugs then added 8% in price, Russian ones – 24%. Experts attributed this to the excitement over the pandemic.