The Ministry of Health, under the leadership of Viktor Lyashko, held a meeting with the pharmaceutical sector to discuss amendments to draft law No. 11493. The proposed changes caused a wave of indignation among market participants and experts due to the risk of increasing the price of medicines and creating shortages in the most vulnerable regions of the country.
Basic provisions
- Limiting purchases to 20% of the manufacturer's volume.
This amendment is intended to prevent monopolization, but in practice it may cause a shortage of drugs. This can have a particularly critical effect on the frontline territories, where the availability of medicines is already a problem. - The introduction of a single electronic catalog
While this should increase transparency in pricing, experts warn of a possible increase in bureaucracy that will delay the supply of drugs and cause drug prices to rise due to additional business costs. - Quotas for the supply of critical medicines
Placing restrictions on vaccines, insulin and antibiotics can create supply interruptions that threaten the lives of patients, especially in remote and frontline areas. - Prohibition of marketing agreements
Manufacturers will no longer be able to provide discounts to pharmacies, which will lead to the impossibility of offering customers favorable prices. Many pharmacies in small towns, where business profitability is low, may close.
The amendments drew almost unanimous criticism from pharmaceutical companies, distributors and pharmacy chains. In their opinion, the proposed changes carry significant social risks: from rising prices to drug shortages, which will hit the most vulnerable sections of the population.
"Instead of improving access to medicines, we can get the opposite effect — empty shelves and queues in pharmacies," commented a representative of one of the pharmacy chains.
Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko called on market participants to submit their proposals to the draft law, promising to take them into account in the final version. This position was positively received by the participants of the meeting, who expressed hope that the interests of the industry and ordinary citizens would be taken into account.
What's next?
Amendments to draft law No. 11493 are only one of the steps in reforming the health care system. However, without taking into account the opinion of market participants and careful analysis of possible consequences, these changes may lead to the opposite effect, worsening the availability of medical drugs for millions of Ukrainians.
