The Ministry Of Health Was Asked To [include Tenofovir In The List Of Essential Drugs]

The Ministry of Health was asked to [include Tenofovir in the list of essential drugs]

24 patient organizations in Russia asked the head of the Ministry of Health Veronika Skvortsova to include Tenofovir and a number of other drugs used in the treatment of HIV infection in the list of vital and essential medicines (VED). WHO recommends Tenofovir as a drug for initiating HIV treatment as part of a combination therapy.

Image from Patient Control blog /

24 patient organizations in Russia asked the head of the Ministry of Health Veronika Skvortsova to include Tenofovir and a number of other drugs used in the treatment of HIV infection in the list of vital and essential medicines (VED). This was reported in a press release received by MedNovosti.

“The current edition of the VED list lacks a number of drugs for the treatment of HIV infection, which are currently widely used in many countries of the world. First of all, we are talking about the drug "Tenofovir" and its combinations with other drugs. "Tenofovir" is one of the most effective and inexpensive drugs for the treatment of HIV infection worldwide,”the letter says.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends Tenofovir as a drug for starting HIV treatment as part of a combination therapy. Similar recommendations are valid in the USA, Great Britain and a number of European countries. In Russia, due to the absence in the VED list, Tenofovir is not purchased at the expense of the federal budget, therefore the drug is not available to all patients - it can only be obtained by residents of several regions who purchase Tenofovir under city or regional programs.

Earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation made a call to update the VED list, which sent a corresponding proposal to the government. The VED list has not been updated since 2011.