Two of Russia's largest pharmaceuticals distributors may be sold before the end of the year. The deal to sell Russia's second-largest distributor SIA International to the American company TPG Capital may be announced in the third week of November. Now the German wholesaler Celesio AG may buy a controlling package in Protek. Experts estimate the value of that deal at $1 billion. They also say that, should Protek lose its contracts with the supplemental medicines benefits program, it will need its Western partner to stay afloat.

Protek, founded in 1990, is Russia's largest pharmaceuticals distributor. In 2006, it occupied 23% of the market, 18.9% without counting the supplemental medicines benefits program. It supplies products from 900 producers to 18,000 pharmacies and medical agencies and owns the Rigla and O3 chains of pharmacies. Its receipts, according to its own statements, in 2006 totaled $2.38 billion, $247 million of which was due to retailing. The DSM Group estimated its receipts last year at $2.17 billion. The main shareholders in the company are Vadim Yakunin and Grigor Khachaturov. The Hungarian pharmaceuticals company Gedeon Richter owns 4% in it. Vitaly Smerdov is the president of the company.

Sources in the company say that negotiations for the sale of the stock package began in late summer, after the arrest of Smerdov, with the goal of preventing the reorganization of the company into a national logistics complex. The foundation of a state pharmaceuticals distributor based on a large existing company was proposed after the Prosecutor General's Office accused the private distributors of price gouging in the supplemental medicines benefits program. About 30% of Protek's business last year was connected with that program. This year, that share has fallen to 18-20%.