Whistleblower documents submitted to US financial regulators contain allegations that Merck, Eli Lilly, Novartis and AstraZeneca paid Russian intermediaries tens of millions of dollars in inflated bonuses for supplying cancer drugs to state hospitals in Russia. According to The Moscow Times, these payments may allegedly have been part of a corruption scheme that maintained high drug prices and restricted competition in the state healthcare system.
The documents claim that bonuses and discounts for Russian distributors ranged from 15% to 35%, while the international average rarely exceeds 10%. Details of the materials were published in a joint investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the Russian outlet Proekt and the Swiss outlet Republik.
According to the investigation, distributor R-Pharm received $360 million in state contracts to supply Merck's Keytruda drug. In 2020–2022, it won 2,400 out of nearly 5,000 tenders, with no competitors in 96% of procurements. As The Moscow Times notes, this allowed the company, which is linked to sanctioned oligarch Alexey Repik, to retain an effective monopoly on supplying Keytruda to state hospitals.
R-Pharm CEO Vasily Ignatiev denied any involvement by the company in improper payments or non-competitive practices. He called the commercial discounts lawful and stated that state auction procedures in Russia are transparent.
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