Tatartsan Health Ministry on the purchase of 1844 units of Meldonium: ‘The pharmaceutical is widely used in medical practice’
As it became known to Realnoe Vremya, the Tatarstan Ministry of Health is purchasing a large batch of Meldonium — the pharmaceutical that has been introduced in the list of banned drugs of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and has caused many scandals with famous athletes. However, the experts in the Health Ministry said that Meldonium in addition to sports is actively used to treat heart failure, to improve cardiac muscle performance.
Almost a million rubles for Meldonium
The Ministry of Health of Tatarstan has announced the tender for the supply of Meldonium 'to provide the citizens of Russia, located on the territory of Tatarstan, who have the right to receive state social assistance'. The tender was announced on 29 August, the application deadline is 26 September. The auction will be held on October 3rd. The maximum purchase price will amount to 984 thousand rubles, the purchase will be funded from the federal budget.
For that money, the Ministry of Health is going to get 1844 drug units of Mildronate No. 60, which contains 60 capsules at 500 mg each. The cost of each unit of the famous due to the doping scandal pharmaceutical will be 533.5 rubles. The drug will be delivered to SUE Medical technology and pharmacy of Tatarstan on Tikhoretskaya Street, 11.
The product delivery term in the documentation is specified the following: in the amount of three month need (half) — from the moment of contract signing until November 30th, 2016, and from January 15th — monthly, at one-sixth, until April 15th, 2017.
Not the first purchase
We will note that it is not the first purchase of Meldonium by the Ministry of Health this year. The previous contract was signed in May – for 1993 units of that pharmaceutical of Latvia production, at 529 rubles per unit. The contractor was Irmed JSC, registered in the apartment in Kazan of Fuchik Street. The company was registered in July of 2015, and in 2016 it got 21 state contracts at 28 million rubles, it supplies pharmaceuticals and the equipment in the regions of the Volga Region.
Realnoe Vremya turned to the previous supplier of Meldonium for the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan, Irmed JSC, for a comment. By phone, the manager on budgetary sales of Irmed Anna Zhuravleva, noting that Meldonium 'is a wonderful rehabilitating drug', advised the correspondent to google its properties and why it is used. She also told that the decision on participation of the company in the tender of the Ministry of Health has not been made yet.
'We do not buy it for athletes'
Meldonium has been included in the list of banned drugs of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) from 1 January 2016. This year's doping tests of almost 300 athletes showed the presence of traces of this substance, what was the reason for the scandal with their following exclusion from participation in the competitions. Thus, a Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova received two years of disqualification (from 26 January 2016). After finding in the samples the traces of Meldonium a fight of a famous boxer Aleksander Povetkin was postponed, but in August the World Boxing Council fully justified him.
At the same time, the chief cardiologist of Health Ministry of Tatarstan, the head of the Department of Cardiology of KSMU, Doctor of Medical Science Albert Galyavich explained that the procurement of Meldonium for medical purposes is a usual practice:
'First of all, it is a pharmaceutical and not a drug for the athletes. It was initially developed for other purposes and there are strict indications for its use. It is prescribed in treatment of heart failure, to improve cardiac muscle performance… I want to say that Meldonium is not a drug of first necessity. It is a drug of second row. We have been using it for more than 10 years, and if not the scandal this year, everything would be quiet… I do prescribe it for my patients, for those who need to support the heart muscle. But I must say, you should not hope for this drug as a miracle cure.'
The Minister of Healthcare of Tatarstan Adel Vafin was also surprised by the noise around the purchase of Meldonium. 'We do not buy it for athletes,' said the Minister to Realnoe Vremya. 'It is a good product, widely used in medical practice, and we can't abandon it just because someone used it under counterindications.'