In at least 25 Russian regions medicines containing the active ingredient roxithromycin have disappeared from pharmacies, reports the newspaper "Izvestia". based on data from regional pharmacies, quoted by News.bg.
According to the publication, three other popular antibiotics are also missing: erythromycin in pharmacies in 12 regions, clarithromycin in six, and azithromycin in five regions of the country. These medications are widely used antibiotics, the newspaper notes.
All four drugs are in short supply in regions such as Dagestan, Crimea, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia.
Sales of these drugs have been stopped in a number of regions due to the transition to more modern drugs, suggests Nikolay Bespalov, RNC Pharma development director. According to him, these antibiotics are now used less often and fall into the category of niche drugs, prescribed for specific diseases or for patients for whom other drugs pose risks.
Production and supplies of these drugs have declined sharply over the past year, with imports from China failing to meet the needs of the Russian market.
These antibiotics are widely used to treat genitourinary system, skin and soft tissue diseases, as well as Lyme disease, explains to "Izvestia" the general practitioner Svetlana Kanevskaya.
According to Harutyun Vardanyan, general practitioner and pulmonologist, these drugs are replaceable and their shortage is not a catastrophe. Doctors have other effective antibiotics to treat infectious diseases such as pneumonia and sore throat, notes Marina Berezhnaya, head of the emergency department at the European Medical Center.
However, Pavel Khoroshev, another medical specialist, emphasizes that although these drugs are interchangeable in most cases, there are situations in which they are indispensable. For example, in the treatment of infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, leading to gastritis and peptic ulcer, clarithromycin is prescribed in 98.5% of cases, for which there are no analogues.