The claims of the FAS to the Ministry of Health became known at the end of March. It was about contracts for the purchase of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). The inspection of the service showed that the Ministry of Health could create advantages for the group of companies "R-Farm" Alexei Repik.

The department did not agree with the claims, but now they published an official statement on this matter.

"In 2017, the Ministry of Health of Russia concluded 87 state contracts for the supply of ARVs, 32 of which - with the company" R-Pharm. " The contracts were concluded based on the results of open electronic auctions, information about which was placed in free access. In cases where there were violations of the delivery of medicines, penal sanctions were imposed on R-Pharm, as well as on other suppliers, "the ministry said.

As a result of the bidding, the cost of treatment per patient per year decreased by half, and the total savings of public funds, as estimated by the Ministry of Health, amounted to 4.8 billion rubles, thanks to which the coverage of HIV-infected therapy rose from 39.5 to 50.14% .

The Ministry of Health does not understand what the FAS considers to be a breach of the antimonopoly law: "It is impossible to determine what the violations are from the contents of the verification report submitted by the FAS Russia, since it does not specify either the being or the facts indicating the presence of a sign of violation of the antimonopoly legislation ".

The check in the Ministry of Health was again called biased and conducted "with gross procedural violations." Because of this, the inspectors concluded that there were signs of a violation of the government's instruction on the pilot implementation of "innovative" drug purchase models in Moscow, Moscow and Kaluga oblasts "in the very fact of execution by the Ministry of Health". Although other departments, including FAS, were involved in this project, the Ministry of Health stressed.

At the same time, FAS checked "R-Pharm". The service suspected the company of cartel collusion. Head of the Office for Combating Cartels FAS Andrei Tenishev said that some organization used dummy legal entities and won tenders intended for small and medium-sized businesses, she found several dozen keys to participate in electronic trading.

He did not name the company, but from the slide of the presentation it followed that it was about the company "R-Farm." But at the end of January 2018, the head of the department, Igor Artemiev, said that the FAS did not find grounds for instituting an antimonopoly case. "The fact that they had a lot of these keys - it's funny, but no more," Artemyev said, adding that this does not entail criminal or administrative responsibility.