MOSCOW, October 22. / TASS /. The resumption of production of the drug for the treatment of leukemia and other oncological diseases "Vincristine" in Russia will begin on Friday, the drug should be in civilian circulation by mid-November. This was reported to journalists on Thursday in the press service of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
"The Ministry of Health of Russia has made changes to the registration certificate of the drug Vincristine (manufactured by OJSC Veropharm), which will allow the company to resume production from October 23rd and start bottling the drug in the amount of 27,000 packages. Putting it into civil circulation will take place by mid-November 2020 ", - the message says.
The ministry notes that the launch of production will reduce the existing shortage of the drug, which is used, in particular, in the treatment of leukemia and lymphomas.
In addition, according to the information on the website of the N. N. NN Blokhin, the branch of the center "Science-Profi" also starts production of additional volumes of the drug "Vincristine Ronts" on Friday. "By November 12, two batches of the anticancer drug Vikristin Ronts - 26.5 thousand Vincristin Ronts, 1 ml and 8.5 thousand packages of Vincristin Ronts, 2 ml will be produced and ready for shipment", - says the message.
It is noted that the branch went to work seven days a week to cover the need for medicine throughout the country until the second quarter of 2021. "The active pharmaceutical substance required for the manufacture of Vincristine is produced on order within three months. The ordered volume of the pharmaceutical substance arrived at Nauka-Profi on October 16, 2020," the text says.
At the end of September, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree according to which Vincristin will be admitted to public procurement without restrictions. The regulation is valid until December 31, 2021.
Drug deficiency
In July, "Pharmaceutical Bulletin", citing the head of the "Give Life" fund, Yekaterina Shergova, reported that Russian hospitals were running out of stocks of the drug. According to Shergova, since April, relatives of cancer patients and medical institutions have begun to apply to the fund with requests to buy Vincristine. It was noted that the annual need for the medicine is 160-200 thousand bottles.
According to the data of the State Register of Medicines of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, "Vincristine" is produced by the N. N. N. N. Blokhin, Israeli company Tev and domestic company Veropharm. In the summer, the Ministry of Health reported that Teva had suspended the import of the drug, and the N. N. Blokhin, 48 thousand packages were produced permanently in June, while there were no stocks of Vincristin in Veropharm warehouses, the manufacturer planned to resume supply of the drug no earlier than 2021.