In Russia there is no shortage of antidepressants with the international nonproprietary name fluoxetine, including the American drug Prozac. The Ministry of Health reported this to RIA Novosti.
According to the department, there have been no notifications from manufacturers or suppliers about the cessation of production or supply of Prozac. 12 containing fluoxetine are also registered in Russia, the Ministry of Health added.
RBC reported earlier today that there is a shortage of Prozac in pharmacies. According to the publication, in Moscow on September 15, this antidepressant could be bought in only four of the almost 2,400 points connected to the Megapteka online aggregator. The publication’s source in the federal pharmacy chain reported that Prozac has been out of stock for a long time, and now the remaining stock is being sold. According to the press service of the Ministry of Health, the last batch of the drug went on sale at the end of June.
Over the seven months of 2023, about 77,400 packages of Prozac were sold, while sales of antidepressant analogues amounted to 1.2 million packages, RBC clarifies. The lack of medicine in pharmacies may be due to technical problems due to the transfer of rights from Prozac manufacturer Elli Lilly to Swixx Biopharma, the analytical company DSM Group suggested.