Importers of medicines are trying to restore their positions in the Kazakhstan market, in January-August this year, Kazakhstan imported 16.6 thousand tons of medicines, or 32.9% more than in the same period in 2016. Thus, the volume of imports of medicines exceeded the levels not only in 2016 but also in 2015 (14.6 thousand tons in 8 months).

In monetary terms, the increase in the amount of import of drugs was less significant, compared to the level of the year before the cost of imports increased by 21.2% to $ 524.2 million.

Thus, the process of import reduction in the Kazakhstan pharma market, which was fixed from 2014, stopped this year.

The increase in imports is a response to the growing demand for medicines from Kazakhstan consumers, with consumption growth being observed in antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals, while sales of maintenance and preventive drugs are falling.

In particular, after a sharp decline in 2014-2015, sales of antibiotics in Kazakhstan since 2016 again went to increase. In the current year, the Republic of Kazakhstan sold about 45.2 tons of antibiotics, or 19.7% more than in January-August 2016. Imports of the corresponding group of drugs also increased by 19.6% – while imported drugs accounted for 85.6% of the total domestic market.

A similar story with drugs and other pharmaceuticals – the increase in their consumption began last year and continues to this day. This year 33.1 thousand tons were sold on the domestic market, or 28.4% more than a year ago. The share of imports in the market increased from 56.8% to 57.6%.

Kazakhstanis purchase medicines necessary for the treatment of already identified diseases, but at the same time they save on the prevention and strengthening of immunity; sales of provitamins, vitamins and their derivatives in the RK are falling over the past two years.For 8 months of the current year, 85 tons of vitamins and provitamins were sold in the country, or 27% less than in the previous year. At the same time, the entire assortment in Kazakhstan is represented by imports.

Germany remains the leader in the import of medicines in Kazakstan, German-made products this year amounted to 17.8% of imports, or $ 93.4 million. For a year the amount of import of German medicines in the Republic of Kazakhstan increased by $ 15.3 million.Also this year, the import of medicines and other pharmaceuticals to the Republic of Kazakhstan from Russia increased sharply – for the year the amount of imports increased by $ 10.8 million, and from the Netherlands – there is an increase of $ 9.6 million.

    Ensuring the availability of medicines and medical products is one of the tasks of the National Policy of Drug Provision within the framework of the “Densaulyk” state program. Within the framework of this task it is proposed:

  • improvement of the system of state registration of medicines and medical products, simplify registration procedures for medicines manufactured under the GMP standard approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA);
  • further development of the national formulary system on the basis of increasing the effectiveness of the national formulary committee with the central authorized body in the field of health. The National Formulary Commission will consider and approve the Kazakhstan National Drug Form;
  • improvement of procurement and logistics mechanisms, including centralized procurement and distribution;
  • systemic measures of state support for the circulation of medicines and products of medical purposes of domestic production;
  • comprehensive measures to ensure the economic affordability of medicines for the population, which will be based on constant monitoring of prices in EEA and other countries, registration of medicines based on wholesale and retail prices and obligations on the volume of supplies regardless of the currency risks of importers;
  • introduction of effective mechanisms for restraining growth of public expenditures by introducing state regulation of prices for medicines using the best international experience based on external and internal reference pricing, improving the planning of the system for purchasing medicines and rational use;
  • as part of the expansion of free provision of drugs at the outpatient level, it will be possible to select more expensive drugs (original drugs and generics) by the population on the basis of co-payment of the difference in the cost of these drugs and the established marginal cost of reimbursement by citizens.