Ministry to include contact lenses to parallel import list soon

MOSCOW, May 26 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry will include contact lenses produced by Alcon Laboratories Inc., Bausch & Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) into the list of parallel imports in the next two weeks, the authority said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry also said that the products can be excluded from the list later if the producers maintain official imports to Russia.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for pharmaceutical company Protek, Johnson & Johnson’s official distributor in Russia, told PRIME that the producer had notified its partners in Russia of suspension of contact lenses imports.

The ministry said that other states besides the U.S. do not plan to stop shipments of contact lenses to Russia, while local production facilities can cover demand for the goods.

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