According to a Citigroup research report, Russia's Health Minister Mikhail Zurabov has signed a decree changing the rules for the Russian drug reimbursement (DLO) Programme, under which the distribution of drugs would be made by name of active ingredients or INN (International Nonproprietary Name) rather than brand name. This would imply higher competition among the drug producers, reducing their brand value.
However, yesterday afternoon Richter's PR Director Ms Zsuzsa Beke announced said that they do not see any changes in Russia's DLO programme, as Russia's budget has been subsidizing the medicine consumption of select group of patients on an ingredients base, rather than according to brands.
Based on Richter’s announcement, we see the news as neutral. The correction could lead to a marginal correction of any impact from the Citigroup research report yesterday. However, we would also highlight that according to our estimates, Richter is expected to realize only 4.9% of its total 2006 sales thorough the Russian drug subsidy program (a significant part of its Russian revenues, some 18.3% of total sales, will come from the private market). Egis’ dependence on the DLO system is also limited, as we estimates that for 2006, 3.8% of its total sales will come from sales to the Russian drug subsidy system and 19.2% from the Russian private market.
Richter will hold its AGM on 26 April at 15:00 CET and we expect the company to publish their 1Q06 results on the same day.