An unknown company, encouraged by municipal authorities, ousted a bigger and a reputable one from a market to win a nice share in the federal medicine project, that sounds like a modern fable, but is certainly true, and bitterly true, for the CV Protek vs Imperia-Pharma affair.
      
      
       CV Protek, the biggest pharmaceuticals distributor in Russia, lost its chance to participate in the social programme to deliver drugs to those eligible in St. Petersburg, with some 900,000 inhabitants. The turnover of CV Protek was $1.5bn last year compared to Imperia-Pharma’s $20m.
      
      
       The local authorities gave their preferences to a fresh firm set up just after the 1998 crisis because they are convinced a single company cannot meet all the demands of the metropolis. They went so far as to lambaste it in front of the national government when the first delay with supplies occurred in February.