Picture of the day: digest of the main news from August 15, 2025

Main

#1 In early August, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development proposed to ban large businesses from using foreign corporate cloud services and software in information systems for storing and processing personal data from September 1, 2027, in cases where there are domestic analogues with a comparable level of functionality and reliable security protocols for each category and class of such platforms. Vademecum asked large medical companies and pharmacy chains how they react to the possible ban. Most companies said that they have already abandoned foreign "clouds" in favor of domestic solutions. The reason for the transition was the trend towards import substitution, as well as economic feasibility.

#2 The Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation proposed to formalize the timeframes for preventive visits by regulatory authorities to facilities with different risk levels so that, under the moratorium on scheduled inspections in effect until 2030, clinics, medical centers, and other organizations remain under regulatory control. For most areas, including medicine, visits to significant risk facilities are planned to be conducted once every 4 years, average risk facilities - once every 5 years, and moderate risk facilities - once every 7 years. Shorter intervals have been established for sanitary and epidemiological supervision - 3, 5, and 6 years, respectively. The countdown begins from the moment the facility is assigned a risk category, and visits for other reasons are not included in the established frequency.

Regulators

The Russian Ministry of Health has proposed amendments to Government Resolution No. 140 of February 9, 2022, regulating the work of the Unified State Health Information System. The changes will allow the system to directly receive the full names of medical workers from the Federal Population Register and update them when they change. This will simplify the submission of applications for accreditation and certification through Gosuslugi, simplifying the need to attach a copy of the name change certificate and speeding up the processing of applications.

Medical services market

The research center of the Progress communications group studied the dental services market in Russian cities with a population of over 500 thousand people. According to the results of the study , the cost of a dentist's appointment can vary by 270 times from region to region. Thus, in Moscow, the figure is at the level of 35.2 thousand rubles (an appointment with a doctor with 17 years of experience in a private clinic), and in Tomsk - from 130 rubles (an appointment with a specialist with 30 years of experience). Almost half of the dentists work in Moscow and St. Petersburg (30% and 13.5%, respectively). The largest share of top-category doctors is observed in the regions - in Volgograd (27.3%), Ulyanovsk (20.8%), specialists with a degree of "Doctor of Medical Sciences" are extremely rare. Even in Moscow, there are only 0.51% of such dentists, and in some cities they are not there at all (Sevastopol, Tolyatti, Tyumen, Orenburg, Ulyanovsk, Khabarovsk).

Government procurement

The volume of government purchases of medicines since the beginning of 2025 has reached 531.6 billion rubles, as measured by the IT company Cursor. According to consolidated data on government purchases of medicines from January to July 2025, the figure was 19% lower than for the same period last year. Over the seven months of 2025, 297 thousand tenders for 683.523 billion rubles were announced, of which 122 thousand (33%) tenders for 171.94 billion rubles were declared invalid. The largest percentage increase in drug sales under government contracts compared to 2024 was shown by Gilead Sciences (40%), AbbVie (20%) and Novartis (6%).

Drug supply

The Board of Trustees of the Circle of Good Foundation approved the inclusion of hemophilia A in the list of diseases, the treatment of which is financed by the state fund. In addition, the fund will now be able to purchase three drugs not registered in the Russian Federation - Altuvoct (efanesoctocog alfa) from Swedish Orphan Biovitrum for patients with hemophilia A, Revuforj (revumenib) from the American pharmaceutical company Syndax for the treatment of acute myeloid and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Opsamit (macitentan) from J&J in dispersible tablets for children with pulmonary arterial hypertension. Currently, Opsamit is registered in Russia only in the form of film-coated tablets.

Criminal cases

The Leninsky District Court of Stavropol left in custody the former director of the National Medical Research Center for Rehabilitation and Balneology Anatoly Fesyun, his deputy and the head of the financial and economic department. As Stavropol.Media writes with reference to the court rulings available to the portal, the defendants are suspected of fraud with the treatment of patients in the sanatoriums of the Caucasian Mineral Waters in the amount of more than 160 million rubles. Unofficial information about the initiation of a criminal case appeared in December 2024. The court extended the arrest of three suspects by two months - until October 23, 2025.

Cybersecurity

A cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a division of the US-based UnitedHealth Group, resulted in the data breach of 192.7 million patients, making it the largest such incident in US history. The hack, carried out by the BlackCat group in February 2024, paralyzed the work of thousands of health care organizations, depriving them of access to insurance verification and reimbursement systems, and exacerbated financial risks for hospitals. Among the compromised data were diagnoses, treatment records and social security numbers of patients.

Other news:

EAEU countries adopted concepts for developing single markets for medicines and medical devices

A working group to provide beneficiaries with medicines will be created in the Vologda Region

India has proposed purchasing vital drugs at a price agreed with pharmaceutical companies

AI's effectiveness in breast cancer screening confirmed in another country