Sales of antidepressants surge in Russia

Demand soared 22% year-on-year, official data shows

Demand for antidepressants in Russia surged by 22% year-on-year, the businesses daily Kommersant reported on Friday, citing data from the national tracing system Chestny ZNAK.

Best-selling products, including Zoloft, have occasionally disappeared from the shelves of local pharmacies, the outlet noted, adding that the shortages are attributable to increased demand along with logistical challenges faced by distributors.

“Patients facing depressive conditions are now seldom using ‘traditional folk medicine’, and are consulting doctors more often,” Nikolay Bespalov, development director at RNC Pharma, told Kommersant.

According to separate data from the marketing agency DSM Group and cited by Kommersant, retail sales of antidepressants totaled 16.1 million packages from January through November 2024, marking a year-on-year increase of 16.8%.

Sales during the first eleven months of last year were also higher than in the peak year of 2022, when Russians purchased around 13 million packages.

In monetary terms, antidepressant sales grew by nearly 32% to 13.5 billion rubles (some $132 million). The growth is related to the rising cost of the medicines, according to Kommersant. Prices rose 11% for the year, as per the state statistics agency Rosstat, which was above the 2024 inflation rate of 9.5%.

READ MORE: Prozac shortage reported in Russia

Earlier this month, the soaring demand reportedly triggered a shortage of Zoloft, which is manufactured by Pfizer. It is the third best-selling antidepressant medicine after Amitriptyline and Fluoxetine.

The business daily noted that sales of antidepressants in Russia spiked in early 2022 shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. In one week, from February 28 to March 6, 577,600 packages of antidepressants were sold for a total of 525.6 million rubles ($5.1 million).