For the first time, the Eurasian Economic Commission has conducted a comprehensive study of the pharmaceutical sector development in the Eurasian Economic Union from a competitive perspective. Maxim Yermalovich, Minister in charge of Competition and Antitrust Regulation of the EEC, spoke about the findings on June 26 at the EEF 2025 session "Pharmaceutical Market Development: Access and Affordability".
"The pharmaceutical sector is one of the most regulated economic sectors supranationally and nationally in the EAEU, which necessitates close antitrust control in the cross-border and national markets," said the EEC Minister.
Among the regulatory problems identified in the course of the study are differences in enforcing common EAEU regulations at the national level and uneven registration of pharmaceuticals in the Union countries under common rules, a high and non-transparent "threshold of entry" to the market, specifics of determining the interchangeability of pharmaceuticals for the purposes of public procurement. All that can create barriers for businesses and consumers.
Special attention is paid to price regulation. According to Maxim Yermalovich, "today it is the national competence of the EAEU countries. However, in the context of establishing a common market of medicines in the Union, attention should be paid to differences in regulation and, as a consequence, emerging medicine price disparities. It's a challenge to competition."
The study has shown that in the Union countries the largest disparities are in prices for medicines for cardiovascular diseases (up to 508%), blood and hematopoietic medications (up to 497%) and antibiotics (up to 275%). This is a consequence of differences in the subjects of state price regulation, methods for calculating price ceilings and lists of reference countries. Sometimes unfair market strategies of business entities may also take place.
In this regard, it is proposed to address the possibility of creating within the EAEU a model list of medicines for the purposes of price regulation and a model methodology for calculating manufacturer ceiling prices to ensure equal guaranteed affordability of medicines for the population of the Union countries. It is also planned to start developing a "Code of Good Practices for the Pharmaceutical Sector of the EAEU" as a soft regulation mechanism to prevent anti-competitive behavior of market participants.
The session participants discussed the prospects for developing the EAEU common market of medicines, the role of antitrust authorities in this regard, as well as measures for promoting the production of pharmaceuticals.
The discussion was attended by Timofey Nizhegorodtsev, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia, Alexander Starovoytov, Deputy Minister of Health of Belarus, Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, Kaarmanbek Baidavletov, Deputy Minister of Health of Kyrgyzstan, Adlet Tabarov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Salidat Kairbekova National Research Center for Health Development of the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan, heads of specialized associations and pharmaceutical companies, representatives of expert and academic communities. The session was attended by representatives of businesses and government authorities from China, Cuba and Myanmar.
