Sales of generics of Ozempic steadily growing in Russia

Russian public procurements of drugs based on the active ingredient semaglutide, which is an original drug from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk (NOV: N) and marketed as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity, increased by 28% in 2024 compared to the previous year to 2.3 billion roubles ($28.1 million), according to latest data of the Russian analytical system for tender management Tenderplan, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

According to its data, the number of Ozempic’s generics - most of which are designed for the treatment of diabetes - on public procurement platforms has slightly decreased over the year - by less than 2% to 373 in 2024. In 2024, there were 1,490 such purchases for a total of 11.2 billion rubles, a year earlier - 790 purchases for 5.3 billion roubles. Currently semaglutide is included in the list of vital and essential drugs in Russia.

In Russia, more than 4.7 million patients with type II diabetes are registered, while their number is growing by 6% annually. Also, some local patients use the drug for the treatment of obesity. As reported by Deputy Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Evgeny Kamkin, in 2023, the country officially had almost 2.5 million obese people (2% of the country's population). At the same time, he believes that there may be much more - up to 30% of the entire population of Russia.