OBJECTIVES : Vital and Essential Drug List (VEDL) of Russia contains drugs, which are reimbursed and whose prices are limited by government. Most of developed countries have analogous drug lists. The aim of our study was to compare Russian VEDL and analogous English and Italian lists qualitatively and quantitatively.

METHODS : English and Italian drug lists used in this study were identified through search in open sources. The qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed to explore: a) whether drugs from English and Italian lists are registered in Russia; b) complementarity of VEDL and English and Italian lists; c) ATC (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical) code based consistency d) ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases) based indication coverage within ATC group L «Antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents».

RESULTS : Four English and one Italian lists were analyzed. From English and Italian lists 41% and 23% of drugs respectively are not registered in Russia, while 67% and 53% of drugs respectively are not included in the VEDL. Ratio of drugs by ATC groups generally is also leaning towards England and Italy in comparison with Russia (208 medications in English list vs 161 in VEDL in ATC group L), while ratio of drugs indications from ATC group L by all ICD-10 codes favorable towards VEDL in compare with English list (1143 vs 519 indications).

CONCLUSIONS : Results of this study show that absolute amount of medications and ATC groups distribution in Russian VEDL are inferior to English and Italian lists. However, indication coverage of ATC group L in VEDL is superior to English lists. This situation could be related with Russian regulation processes specialty, particularly, reimbursement by all indications. Results of such type of studies could be helpful as a source of information on coverage of different therapeutic groups in vary of healthcare setting and may help to define areas that require optimization.