Amendments[1] to the law on protection of competition[2], which introduce the concept of “a system for ensuring compliance with the requirements of antitrust law, i.e. antitrust compliance” entered into force on March 12, 2020.

Draft amendments to Federal Law On Foreign Investments in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for National Defense and State Security were published on September 10, 2018 on the website used for official publication of draft regulations. The proposed amendments will affect those Russian nationals who control strategic enterprises and plan to apply for or are in process of obtaining another/second citizenship.

Dmitry Khakhaev gave a presentation on the Interaction between the Pharmaceutical Industry, Practicing Doctors and Opinion Shapers: Legal Ways of Promoting Drugs  during a meeting with the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia in St. Petersburg held to discuss sensitive issues related to antitrust regulation.

Dmitry highlighted how the legislation on advertising in the pharmaceutical industry has evolved in the United States and the European Union where it is the most developed currently. Dmitry also shared his forecast about which of these countries Russia will follow in matter of drug advertising regulation.

In his presentation, Dmitry paid particular attention to issues related to online promotion of medicines both by pharmaceutical companies and opinion shapers such as athletes, actors, writers and other influential persons.

Vyacheslav Alexandrovich Tukaev, Deputy Head of the Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia in St. Petersburg, as well as representatives of the pharmaceutical industry attended this meeting during which they addressed the following questions:

‒        How to determine whether a publication or website is a specialized one in which health professionals can advertise prescription drugs?

‒        Are users, pharmacists and doctors entitled to give some positive or negative feedback on medicines in social media? Could such feedback qualify as advertising?

‒        Should pharmaceutical companies be prohibited to promote drugs through health professionals and pharmacists? And should such prohibition be extended to opinion shapers?

‒        Can pharmaceutical companies report their unique prescription drug developments, and would this be advertising?

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The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has been playing an important and very active role in state regulation for a while. Many law firms have set up a separate practice offering special services for liaising with this particular state authority, and others have filled this niche by specializing in resolving issues with the FAS. Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax &Law, agrees that the FAS has become more active and also talked with Delovoy Peterburg about the demand for antimonopoly compliance from European businesses.

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