Dr. Aleksey Zalesov, Managing Partner of «A.Zalesov & Partners» Patent & Law Firm, contributed to the Russian IP magazine «Patents and licenses. Intellectual rights» (www.patentinfo.ru) with his article «Specific features of the Russian patent system in the field of pharmaceuticals», issue 9, 2018. Recent developments including issuance of a compulsory patent license in the pharmaceutical industry are discussed. There are almost no restrictions on obtaining a patent in the field of pharmaceuticals and methods of treatment in the current patent legislation of the Russian Federation. The level of requirements of patent examination on the disclosure of the invention, and patentability criteria of industrial applicability and inventive step as to pharmaceutical patent applications is still rather moderate. Meanwhile, a patent with a relatively broad scope of protection in the field of pharmaceuticals in Russia is quite easy to obtain.