It has become known how much money the regions spent on ineffective medications

In 2024, Russia spent 16.2 billion rubles on purchasing medicines not included in official treatment protocols, according to information from a specialized analytical company. Of this amount, about 10 billion rubles went to, for example, homeopathic medicines, dietary supplements, and medicinal plants.

Among the most popular products are calendula-based preparations: the procurement justifications indicate that it can be used, in particular, for viral pneumonia. For patients with nasopharyngeal oncology, for example, plantain, calamus, arnica, oak bark, peppermint, chamomile and sage were purchased, Izvestia writes.

Thus, homeopathic remedies and herbal preparations were purchased for cancer patients. Flowers, leaves and extracts of birch, St. John's wort, tansy and milk thistle were purchased for patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms. For the treatment of nasopharyngeal cancer, calamus, arnica, oak bark, peppermint, fir, chamomile, sage and valerian were purchased - the total amount was 13.5 million rubles.

Regions spent about 19 million rubles on products containing plantain. They were purchased for patients with irritable bowel syndrome, mental and behavioral disorders caused by the use of nicotine-containing products, as well as for pregnant women. A significant amount of funds (almost 9 million rubles) was spent on preparations containing calendula. 7.4 million rubles were spent on medications containing marshmallow.

The regions allocated more than 4 billion rubles for medicines for the treatment of rare hereditary pathologies, and about 2 billion rubles for various allergens.

The largest volumes of purchases of drugs not included in clinical recommendations were recorded in Yakutia, Udmurtia, Chechnya, Karachay-Cherkessia, Dagestan, as well as in the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad regions, Stavropol and Krasnoyarsk territories, and Chukotka.

The press service of the Ministry of Health explained to Izvestia that in the presence of medical indications (individual intolerance, vital indications) and by decision of a council of doctors, it is permissible to prescribe medications that are not included in the standards of care or are not indicated in the relevant clinical recommendations. In such cases, it is also possible to prescribe by trade names, whereas usually therapy should be prescribed using international non-proprietary names.

For example, based on sorafenib (used for non-small cell lung cancer), asparaginase and ivosidenib (used for acute lymphoblastic leukemia). Sorafenib cost 30.9 million rubles, ivosidenib - 21.6 million rubles, asparaginase - 131.5 million rubles.

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