The combined market share of the largest Russian pharmaceutical distributors within the TOP-25 in the direct deliveries segment amounted to 77% as of the first three quarters of 2025. Over the year, the level of concentration in the wholesale segment increased only marginally — by just 0.55%. Notably, this result was almost entirely driven by the activity of the largest companies: the aggregate share of wholesalers within the top five rose by 0.57% year on year and currently stands at 48.5% of the market. This does not imply that other players delivered zero growth — for example, Pharmkomplekt and Pharmperspektiva demonstrated solid results — however, structurally the industry has reached a stage where competitive advantages are determined primarily by technological sophistication and, for retail-oriented companies, by the presence of direct interests in pharmacy retail.

It is noteworthy that efforts to максимально “anchor” retail partners are developing simultaneously across several models, including the expansion of proprietary pharmacy chains. However, over recent years the associative format — including remote ordering services — has become the de facto standard for large distributors. In the first three quarters of 2025, the total number of pharmacies involved in just three projects — Apteka.ru, Zdravcity and Polza.ru — exceeded 115 thousand outlets, with their combined coverage expanding by 8.2 thousand pharmacies over the last three months alone. Given that, according to the “Pharmacy Census in Russia” database by RNC Pharma, an average of 84.9 thousand pharmacies were operating nationwide during this period, it is evident that these services operate in parallel across a significant share of outlets.

This practice is less widespread among marketing alliances, where affiliation with a distributor is more rigid and competition for partners is significantly more intense. For example, in the third quarter of 2025, the Sozvezdie service operated by Pulse connected 1.36 thousand new pharmacies, while ProApteka, run by Protek, lost around 320 partners over the same period. As a result, the gap between the membership sizes of these associations has narrowed to fewer than one hundred outlets. This informal rivalry is likely to intensify further, particularly given that the infrastructure of pharmacy retail entered a phase of contraction in 2025: compared with the first three quarters of 2024, the total number of pharmacies in Russia declined by 754 outlets.

That said, this issue is more critical for retail, while the interests of domestic pharmaceutical distributors increasingly extend beyond pharmacy sales alone. A demonstrative example is provided by BSS: in October 2025, a subsidiary of the group acquired two specialized distributors of medical devices. The need for these competencies arose in connection with the company’s strategic expansion in the orthopedics market. The group includes the EndoArt manufacturing facility, which produces hip joint endoprostheses, and well-established relationships with specialized medical institutions are critically important in this segment.

Table. TOP-25 Pharmaceutical Distributors by Share of the Direct Drug Supply Market (Including the Public Procurement Segment), Value Terms, 1–3Q 2025