According to the results of the first four months of 2025, Russians purchased almost 18 million packages of antifungal medicines [1] worth 5.5 billion rubles (at retail prices, including VAT) on the retail market. According to the database “Audit of retail sales of medicines in Russia (total sell out)” from the analytical company RNC Pharma, the monetary volume of sales grew by 9.1% over the year. Growth in rubles in this category has been observed for the third year in a row. At the same time, there has been a noticeable decline in actual consumption — during the reporting period, sales in packages decreased by 0.4%, with only systemic medicines seeing a decline in consumption. In total, approximately 54.9 million packages of antifungal medicines from both groups (D01A and J02A) were purchased at retail in 2024, amounting to 15.8 billion rubles. Compared to 2023, sales decreased by 1.2% of antifungal agents of both groups (D01A and J02A) worth 15.8 billion rubles. Compared to 2023, sales decreased by 2.1% in terms of packages and increased by 7.7% in terms of value.

High demand for antifungal medications is typically during the hot season, peaking in March and declining in September. Last year, sales of antifungal medicines peaked in July, with the population purchasing 4.9 million packages worth 1.4 billion rubles, which was 9.2% higher than spending on these medicines in July 2023. However, actual consumption during this period decreased by 0.2%. In April of this year, spending exceeded 4.7 billion rubles (+9.2% compared to April 2024), but remained virtually unchanged in terms of packages (+0.2%).

About 55% of all natural consumption is accounted for by systemic antifungal medicines (J02A). At the same time, the monetary volume is higher for external use products (D01A) — during the period under review, their share accounted for by more than 65% of retail sales.

At the end of the first four months of 2025, 31 INNs and 113 trademarks were represented in retail. Some brands are available both for internal use and for external one. More than 24% of spending in this group was accounted for by topical preparations containing the active ingredient naftifine. There are 14 brands (from 23 companies) under this INN, five of which have appeared in the last three years. About 20% of sales by value are accounted for by medicines containing fluconazole, including both systemic and topical products. The range of medicines with the INN fluconazole also includes 14 brands from 32 manufacturers.

Russians' maximum spending within the group was also directed toward unbranded fluconazole preparations (12% share in rubles) — sales grew by 9% in rubles over the year, but at the same time, the brand's natural consumption is falling, with sales declining by 5.4% by January-April 2024. Exoderil, manufactured by Sandoz (part of Novartis), retains second place with an 8.6% share of sales. In third place in the ranking is the Terbinafine brand from 14 different manufacturers (9% share).

Despite the fact that all of the top ten brands showed positive growth in rubles during the period under review, the actual consumption of two of them decreased. In addition to the leader (Fluconazole), a slight decrease in sales was also observed for the brand Nizoral from Johnson & Johnson (-0.6%). The largest growth among the top products was recorded for the medicine Naftifine (manufactured by 11 companies) — over the year, spending on this brand increased by 24.3%, and natural consumption grew by 19.6%. Outside the top ten, the maximum growth was observed for the medicine Acrimicol (INN sertaconazole) in the form of a cream from the company Akrikhin, which went on sale in early 2024. Compared to January-April last year, the brand's natural sales increased 330 times.

Table. TOP 10 brands of antifungal medicines (groups D01A and J02A – according to the EphMRA classification) by sales volume in the Russian retail pharmaceutical market in January-April 2025

[1] D01A - Antifungal medicines for the treatment of skin diseases, J02A - Antifungal medicines, systemic