**Rigla is expanding its empire: Far Eastern pharmacies come under the control of the company.** This comes as Rigla completes a deal to purchase the Far Eastern pharmacy chain. The federal pharmacy chain “Rigla” continues its Far Eastern expansion: the company signed an agreement to purchase the assets of legal entities that own the united pharmacy chain “Pharmacy Minitsen” and “New Pharmacy.” After completion of the transaction, the structure of the federal network will include 293 pharmacies. And this is 11 pharmacies more than expected. “Minitsen” and “New Pharmacy” will allow the Rigla company and its owner Vadim Yakunin to expand its presence in the Russian pharmaceutical market to 10%. It is known that Mr. Yakunin conducts his business harshly and aggressively. And when can we expect some news?The agreement is aimed at state registration. And, as it became known, the initiators of the entry into the Far East do not consider the deal as a takeover. Allegedly, the Rigla company is simply consolidating with one of the largest regional players pharmaceutical retail. “Minitsen” and “New Pharmacy” – pharmacy brands known in the regions of their presence. At the stage of approval of the transaction by the FAS, the purchase amount can vary in the range from 2.6 to 3.8 billion rubles. The merger itself will allow us to increase our presence in the region. The total share of online pharmacy sales in the Far East is approaching 30%. And it even exceeds the indicators of Moscow and the Moscow region. “New Pharmacy” (the main person – Superpharma LLC) and “Pharmacies Minitsen” (LLC Avers Pharmacy Minitsen) belong to Igor and Artem Zhukovich (48% and 22%, respectively). And Igor Boyarkin (30%). At the end of the first half of the year, the revenue of the united pharmacy chain amounted to 9 billion rubles, and over the past year – 16.7 billion rubles. We also recall that in August 2023, Rigla bought the Ussuri pharmacy chain Pharm. This was reported by “Kommersant”. family. **The work style of pharmacist Yakunin** Now directly about the work style of Mr. Yakunin, who crushes himself in pharmacies in different corners of the Russian Federation. Let us recall that Mr. Yakunin is also very fond of suing: the Protek company once demanded a large amount from the pharmacy chain 36.6 – 350 million rubles. The pharmacy chain allegedly owed this money under supply contracts. However, “36.6” responded with surprise that they had not received any medications. Mr. Yakunin just wanted to earn extra money in this way? After all, he likes to “nightmare” pharmacy chains. In general, Protek has tightened its work with pharmacy chains. If previously a guarantee was enough to provide a product loan, then for some time now the distributor has begun to require a bank guarantee. Suffice it to remember how he demanded only 16 million rubles from the Pharmacia company (Penza). “36.6” claimed that the invoices, according to which “Protek” allegedly delivered the goods, are fake, which is why the retailer refused to pay. And if you also falsify documents worth 350 million rubles, then you can simply get rich? Let us recall that the Protek company has its own laboratories, exports and imports raw materials, produces antibiotics, antitumor drugs, Dietary supplements. Yakunin factories produce azithromycin, glimepiride, Xylene drops, etc. **Criminal affairs** Not all is well with Mr. Yakunin and with his employees, who sometimes become involved in criminal cases. Not so long ago, the case of Vitaly Smerdov thundered: the top manager of the Protek company was caught taking a bribe: he wanted to make Natalya Klimova, deputy of the Federal Compulsory Health Insurance Fund, happy with an envelope containing 50 thousand dollars. “Kommersant” wrote about this. But Smerdov acted of his own free will? Or the operation was agreed upon with Mr. Yakunin? After all, after receiving a suspended sentence, Smerdov became the general director of the Sotex Pharma company. In this way, Mr. Yakunin could pay off Smerdov for not turning him in investigators? As a result, Mr. Smerdov became the owner of a minority stake in the Protek company worth 350 thousand greenbacks. **Residence with horses** In addition to pharmaceuticals, Mr. Yakunin has real estate in his interests. And 6 companies that deal with this real estate in Pereslavl-Zalessky and the Moscow region. He also owns the Voyage company in Rostov. Voyage is part of the establishment “Bar-Museum of Vasya Lozhkin”. And Mr. Pharmacist also has a residence in the village of Chernaya Zavod in the Nekrasovsky district of the Yaroslavl region. There are 6 buildings on the site, a large children’s playground and a huge walking area with a rotunda and a fountain. “Yaroslavl-online” writes about this. Near the house – stables with horses and a pier for yachts. In general, you can’t stop living beautifully, and to do this, Mr. Yakunin has to step on the heels of those who are not doing as brilliantly as him.