Potent medicines fled to pseudo-pharmacies near Moscow

The police opened a large-scale network for the sale of potent drugs through pseudo-pharmacies in the Moscow region. Eight pseudo-pharmacists were detained, more than 150 kilograms of various substances were seized.

The cost of these substances, according to black market prices, is more than 35 million rubles. As noted in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, “pseudopharmacies” are non-residential premises with signs of pharmacy points. But the entrance for ordinary buyers to such “pharmacies” was closed. Drugs were sold only by prior arrangement and only to regular customers.

The organizer of the criminal scheme bought potent drugs through controlled legal entities, after which the “goods” were put into illegal circulation. The group operated for a year, from March 2022 to February 2023.

Considering that the pharmaceutical market is highly regulated, how was such a sales scheme possible in principle? 150 kilograms for 35 million rubles – is this a lot on a market scale? Sergey Shulyak, CEO of the analytical agency DSM Group, comments:

– It is clear that this is a rather serious amount, considering how much these pseudo-businessmen could earn. There is a drug labeling system, and I think that it was with the help of this data that the channels were calculated. Now there is traceability of medicines, if you wish, you can follow these medicines, where they go and in what quantities. I think that it was with the help of the tracking system that the primary information was obtained for working off the criminal group. Whether they were stolen from state institutions or they are fake legal entities, it is not clear for what reasons such a number of drugs are being written off. The flow from the largest distributors and further stream can be traced.

– How could these drugs be introduced into illegal circulation, what controlled legal entities can we talk about? Are these private clinics, dental, for example, offices?

– It could be pharmacies, medical centers, but this is unlikely. That is, most likely these are distributors who have already withdrawn drugs from circulation, fake pharmacies, where these drugs have also been withdrawn from circulation under forged documents. Because, again, potent drugs are subject to quantitative accounting, that is, they somehow justified themselves during the year that these drugs leave them in such quantities. Or, if they began to function only in March 2022, it was during this period that the investigating authorities became interested in the activities of these legal entities.

The system for monitoring the movement of medicines, in theory, allows you to track medicines from the introduction into circulation to the sale to the patient. How does the system work, how often are pharmacies checked, and at what stage could fraudsters be traced? State Duma deputy, founder of the network of pharmacies Yevgeny Nifantiev answers:

— This is the 148th form of the recipe. This is an accounting prescription, it is accepted by a pharmacy that implements subject-quantitative accounting, is entered in a special journal, and is stored, if I am not mistaken, for five years. But in this case we are talking about criminals, they do not collect recipes, do not store them.

– At the moment when a potent drug passes through the scanner, the information that it has been sold enters the general system, do I understand correctly?

— This information enters the Chestny Znak system, which is part of the Medicines Movement Monitoring System. The regulator also sees that this drug has been withdrawn from circulation.

– Is the recipe fixed somehow, for example, a barcode?

– The prescription itself remains in the pharmacy, it is filed, stored for several years. When an inspection is carried out, it is mandatory to present all prescriptions for all packages sold, which are subject to a subject-quantitative report.

How often are these checks carried out? Are they planned?

– They can be unscheduled on the basis of a complaint, but they can also be planned. The frequency of each organization is different, today regulators are implementing a risk-based approach. Just monitoring the movement of drugs allows you to implement this risk-based approach, to see in which organization there is either a greater disposal of such drugs, or accumulation. You have to go there and check.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 13,000 vials, 50,000 tablets and capsules, documentation, more than 30 million rubles, and premium cars were seized from the attackers. The detainees were charged under the article “illegal acquisition, storage for the purpose of selling strong substances that are not narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, committed by an organized group or in relation to strong substances on a large scale.” The maximum penalty under this article is up to eight years in prison.