Marketing analysis of the use of drugs containing retinoids in the treatment of acne

Acne is a common skin disease, which is accompanied by a significant skin and psychological burden. Today in Ukraine, significant attention is paid to the issue of acne treatment – scientists from leading scientific, medical (pharmaceutical) and cosmetic institutions are engaged in the search for the most optimal means for the acne treatment. Retinoids are a group of substances that deserves thorough study in terms of production and sustainable introduction of drugs to the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine. Therefore, the goal of our work was the marketing analysis of drugs for the treatment of acne with the content of retinoids as active substances. Determining the main trends of foreign manufacturers in the use of retinoids in medicinal products for the acne treatment will allow to predict approaches to the development of domestic effective medicine containing retinoids. During the analysis, methods of logical and meaningful formulation of the problem, office marketing research, content analysis of publications in scientific and practically oriented medical and pharmaceutical publications, comparative analysis, tabular and graphic means of visual presentation of the obtained data were used. The analysis of the range of drugs containing retinoids, presented on the domestic pharmaceutical market, was carried out according to the data of the State Register of Medicinal Products of Ukraine, the classification system of the ATC, and the State Formulary of Medicinal Products. According to the results of the work, it was determined that 13 trade names of medicinal products containing retinoids for the acne treatment are registered on the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine. It was determined that there are no registered medicinal products for the acne treatment containing retinoids of domestic production. In Ukraine medicines containing retinoids are represented by six countries. Among the dosage forms used for the acne treatment, solid dosage forms (hard and soft capsules) and soft dosage forms (gels, creams, lotions) should be distinguished. Today, the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine presents drugs of the I, III and IV generation of retinoids. Most of the drugs for the acne treatment containing retinoids registered in Ukraine are monocomponent. The lack of combinations of retinoids with active components widely used for the acne treatment is related to the technological aspects of the production of drugs with retinoids. The volume of sales of drugs with retinoids for the treatment of acne has been increasing in recent years, despite the high cost of products, which indicates the demand for the development of these drugs of domestic production. The obtained data will make it possible to develop approaches to the introduction into the production of domestic drugs for the treatment of acne containing retinoids.