Marketing research of the national antiepileptic drug market

   Introduction. The anticonvulsant drug range expansion, the change in the treatment strategies, and person-oriented approach to choosing the optimal drug dictates the need for marketing research to update and systematize data on the state of the national pharmaceutical market of anticonvulsants. Carrying out a marketing analysis of the antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) market, including determining the market situation and the qualitative characteristics of this group of drugs, is necessary to prescribe optimal and rational pharmacotherapy regimens for patients with epilepsy, as well as to meet the
demand and needs of consumers.
   Aim. To perform an analysis of the national market of AEDs and determine its main parameters and development trends.
   Materials and methods. The methodology for research of the AEDs market included methods of content-analysis and ATC/DDD methodology, structural-logical, graphic-analytical, and statistical methods of analysis. The objects of content analysis were: the State Register of Medicines; the unified structured directory-catalog of medicines; Internet sites; price-lists of the main distributors of medicines. The objects of the study were the sales data on AEDs in the Russian Federation for 2020 provided by the IQVIA agency (IMS Health).
   Results. An analysis of the AED range in the Russian market showed suffi cient assortment saturation of AEDs of the 1st and 2nd generations, and an insuffi cient number of the latest AEDs. It has been established that the largest share (50 %) of the AEDs in the home pharmaceutical market is represented by Russian manufacturers. At the same time, India makes the maximum contribution to the structure of imports (11 %). In 2020, the leading positions in consumption continued to be held by valproates (36 %) and carbamazepine (27 %), however, the AEDs’ consumption structure has been changing in recent years, the share of the newest anticonvulsants was 13% in physical terms (in volume) and 23 % in monetary terms (in values), respectively, an increase in the cost of the newest anticonvulsants amounted to 19 %.
   Conclusion. The growth driver of the AED market is the subsidized segment. The growth of public antiepileptic therapy spending, despite the entry of ever cheaper generic drugs, was provided by medicines of the new and newest generations, the price of which diff ers up to a hundred times from traditional AEDs. The revealed dynamics of sales of AEDs, the social orientation of the policy of the Russian state, and the legal norms for subsidized drug provision of patients with epilepsy with all drugs, suggest a further increase in government expenditures on AEDs in the coming years.

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