United Russia: It is necessary to include the fight against cholesterol in the relevant federal project

Chairman of the United Russia General Council Commission on Healthcare, Director of the Moscow Multidisciplinary Clinical Center Kommunarka Denis Protsenko said at the forum of the All-Russian Union of Cardiovascular Disease Patients that the treatment of dyslipidemia often requires PCSK9 – targeted therapy, during which drugs are used when other drugs are ineffective or intolerable. PCSK9 inhibitors are not included in the list of federal project drugs that are provided to patients free of charge.

Representatives of 93% of the regions participating in the survey, as Protsenko noted, confirmed the need to include medicines in the federal project. The required amounts depend on the subjects and range from 368 thousand rubles to "tens of millions". The number of patients who need such drugs is measured from tens to several thousand people per subject.

The initiative to expand the list of subsidized drugs, provided that an additional budget is allocated, was supported by 65% ​​of the subjects. The rest support this idea, provided that the current funding is maintained.

Protsenko emphasized that the share of patients receiving the necessary medications and achieving the "target" cholesterol level depends on the region. The indicator varies from 0.8% (in Ingushetia) to 86% (in the Leningrad Region), the average value for the country is 35.5%. According to the specialist, the final indicator depends not only on the availability of medications, but also on how doctors follow clinical recommendations. At the same time, many regions, according to Protsenko, do not keep records or monitor the effectiveness of therapy.

The Russian Ministry of Health believes that the current mortality rate from circulatory diseases is "historically low." Also, over the past five years, "more than 2.5 million high-risk patients have received free medication, and the program's coverage has exceeded 98%," the department reported.

In 2025, the Ministry of Health plans to submit an application to the Government and the Ministry of Finance to expand the federal project "Combating CVD" by including in the program preferential drug provision for patients with resistant arterial hypertension, who also have chronic kidney disease, chronic heart failure, and suffer from atrial fibrillation. According to calculations by the chief freelance cardiologists of the ministry, 43.5 billion rubles per year may be required to provide 1.2 million such citizens with drugs. According to departmental analytics, the investments will save about 14 thousand lives and at least 19.2 billion rubles of the country's GDP per year.