Back in 2019, our government created a system called "A Fair Sign" (Честный знак). It was created to fight counterfeit goods. The idea is simple: every item produced has this unique mark that looks like a QR-code, and by scanning it, you can track the history of the item from the moment it was produced to the moment it arrived at a shop. It is obligatory to use, and every year, the categories where it is obligatory are expanded. It started with medicine. Right now, there are 32 categories that have to use this system.
I personally thought that this system is just another way of extracting money from people and businesses. Acquiring those marks is not free. And then you have to change your production line to print those codes on packages, which is not always easy. I felt the benefits of the system only occasionally: when I scan this code on self-checkout, and the system won't let me buy a dairy product that is already spoiled, and I hadn't checked it myself.
But recently, my niece asked me to buy her a medicine. She couldn't find it in our hometown, so I was asked to look for it in the city. I looked up in all the pharmacy websites I could think of. Nothing. It's out of stock everywhere, not only in my city, but even in Moscow. There are some supply issues, apparently, as it is a unique medicine produced in Hungary. There are no generics of it. I thought of asking one of my friends to grab the medicine in Georgia the next time she'll visit Russia, but she wasn't planning to visit in the nearest future. I looked for advice on the Internet. And I found one: "Use the Fair Sign app." Apparently, there's an option of searching for a rare medicine. And because the Fair Sign system tracks it from the production line to the pharmacy to the customer, the data should be up-to-date.
I found four pharmacies with the medicine in my oblast. One was not far from my place, so I went to check, but they didn't have it. So the system is not perfect. I reported it in the app, and it disappeared some time later. But another pharmacy, surprisingly, was in my friend's village. I didn't even know they had one. I asked him to check, and voila! The pills were successfully obtained.
I hope supply issues will be resolved soon. But I'm glad we have this system in place.
I hope your niece will get the medicine as soon as possible. I guess our level isn't like yours yet, but we are shortage of medicines as well. Is it a universal problem?
@yumiyumayume Thank you for your comment.
I can't say that we have a shortage of medicines. Some specific drugs disappeared here and there because of war-related sanctions. But in this case, the medicine in question is undergoing a registration documentation update. It's expected to return to pharmacies in August.