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- Tread marks: there is a shortage of an unparalleled drug for cancer patients in the Russian Federation
Tread marks: there is a shortage of an unparalleled drug for cancer patients in the Russian Federation
In hospitals, patients began to be denied discharge of the drug used in chemotherapy with the active ingredient mesna, the organization "Assistance to Sarcoma patients" told Izvestia. It is a chemoprotector that helps to reduce the negative effects on the body from anti-cancer drugs, and, as doctors note, the drug has no analogues. The Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that back in 2024, it was decided to issue an opinion "on the defect or the risk of its occurrence" for this drug. According to the Ministry of Health, mesna in hospitals will last for 3.4 months, and in Russia as a whole — for 5.3. Domestic production of the drug will be launched only by 2027.
Why there is no medicine
Cancer patients in Russia are no longer prescribed a drug with the active ingredient mesna, the patient organization Assistance to Sarcoma patients told Izvestia. This medicine is used to prevent complications that occur in patients with chemotherapy, in particular in treatment regimens for bone and soft tissue sarcomas in adults and children. As noted in the organization, while the situation is not widespread, there have been refusals to prescribe the drug in a number of medical institutions, but there are more and more such cases.
Representatives of the patient organization appealed to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Industry and Trade with a request to resolve the issue of the availability of mesna (letters are available to Izvestia).
"According to the Unified Information System in the field of procurement, from December 2024 to February 2025, all auctions for mesnas are declared invalid, since no one submits applications to participate in them," the appeal says. Izvestia analyzed the tenders and made sure that this information was accurate.
According to the State Register of Medicines, in Russia, drugs with the active ingredient mesna are registered with two companies — the Russian Veropharm and the American Baxter. At the same time, the domestic vaccine has been discontinued, according to pharmacy aggregator websites. According to the patient organization, Veropharm has no plans to resume production of the drug. Izvestia sent a request to this company asking if production would resume, but they had not received a response at the time of the release of the material.
As of February 28, the American drug is available in three pharmacies in Moscow, two in Bashkiria and one in Tatarstan, Izvestia found out after analyzing aggregator data. According to them, pharmacies in at least 71 regions do not have medicines.
As stated in the letter from patients to the departments with reference to the Roszdravnadzor registry, the American drug was last supplied to the Russian market in April 2023. The analytical company RNC Pharma confirmed this information.
"In 2023, the market received 6.9 thousand packages, in 2022 — 56.7 thousand, and in 2021 — 46.3 thousand packages," they specified.
But, as the press service of Roszdravnadzor reported, in October 2024, 4 thousand packages of a foreign drug were imported into Russia.
At the same time, part of the drug imported last year went on retail sale. According to the analytical company DSM Group, in 2024, about a thousand packages of mesna were sold through pharmacies.
Today, the American company no longer plans to supply the medicine to Russia, the Sarcoma Patients Assistance organization clarified, citing statements from Baxter distributors. Nikolay Bespalov, Director of Development at RNC Pharma, suggested that the refusal to supply it was due to economic factors.
— Logistics and production are becoming more expensive, and Baxter cannot raise the price of the drug for Russia, since it is included in the list of vital and essential, that is, the price for it is regulated by the state, he said.
The press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade told Izvestia that they had received an appeal from the patient organization and were considering it. They clarified, with reference to data from the operator of the Honest Sign state labeling system (CRPT), that as of February 25, 2025 in Russia "there are about 5.3 thousand packages of the drug with the active ingredient mesna on the leftovers."
Availability of the drug
Mesna has no analogues, and this absence is a serious problem, the director of the Institute of Molecular and Experimental Medicine of the Scientific Medical Center told Izvestia. Dmitry Rogachev, Mikhail Maschan.
— The drug is used to prevent hemorrhagic cystitis, an inflammation of the bladder that causes blood to appear in the urine. In the complete absence of mesna, hundreds of patients will face a serious complication and a threat to their lives," he stressed.
Igor Utyashev, Director of the Clinical Research Department at Medscan Group and leader of the melanoma, skin tumors and sarcoma group at the Hadassah Institute of Oncology, also called the lack of a vaccine critical. According to him, in Russia, sarcomas account for about 1% of the total number of cases of malignant neoplasms. They are detected in about 5-6 thousand patients every year, he noted.
Mesna-based drugs were recognized as defective (missing in pharmacies in the required volume) back in 2024 at meetings of the interdepartmental commission to determine the defect or the risk of its occurrence, the Ministry of Industry and Trade told Izvestia. They also noted that "domestic manufacturers are working on a project to develop and manufacture medicines with this active substance." The ministry did not specify which companies they were.
But the Ministry of Health told Izvestia that mesna had been included in the roadmap for localization of production in the country and clarified, with reference to the Moscow Endocrine Plant, that preparations were underway for its registration.
"Production of the drug is planned for 2027," according to a response to a request from Izvestia.
The ministry reported that mesna-based drugs in the country will last for 5.3 months. In particular, in medical organizations — for 3.4 months, and in pharmacies — for 17.9.
"If there is no medicine in a particular medical organization, it can be redistributed," the department said.
In January 2025, the Ministry of Health received documents from Wholesale Medical Company LLC for permission to introduce temporary treatment of a batch of a drug with a vaccine that was not registered in the country, the department said. It will be considered at the next meeting of the interdepartmental commission to determine the defect or risk of drug defects.
With a positive decision of the commission, the imported volume will ensure the need for mesna-based drugs for more than a year, the Ministry of Health assured.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
