The introduction of rigid administrative regulation of medicines can lead to a shortage of high -quality European drugs and replace them with cheaper counterparts from India and other countries . Ivan Zelensky, director of the Blood Drop Foundation, warns about it .
- How do you think new prices regulation will affect the availability of patients for patients? Do you see the risk that, by imposing restrictions, manufacturers will reduce supply or remove certain drugs from the market?
This is a very risky bill. In general, if we have a market economy in the country, and the state begins to enter the market, introducing additional regulations there, then it is not very good. Some of the drugs can, on the contrary, rise, not chewing, and some of the drugs may disappear from the market at all . That is, they will not be profitable to sell their goods in Ukraine, and they will leave.
- Will innovations affect the implementation of treatment protocols, because they prescribe certain drugs, including imported ones, which, if the professional community reservations, can disappear?
I can comment on my realm, oncology. The main molecules are purchased through the nomenclature of public procurement. And here is more or less normal, there are long-term contracts and risk.
There is a risk where the pharmacy segment, where retail. In retail, each drug competes with each other on a shelf.
- Will innovations on physical accessibility of medicines, including imported ones? After all, such associations as the European Business Association have already declared concern from foreign companies.
They are right. In fact, in our country, what history: conditionally the market can be divided into three parts. One part is European manufacturers, there are generic or original. Another part is our Ukrainian manufacturers, we have quite powerful pharmacology. And the third part is Indian manufacturers, which we, unfortunately, we very much enter our market. And they are very strongly pressed with their low prices, as on our manufacturer, and especially the European. Therefore, this law, it risks to cause Europeans to go and the Hindus will survive. And in our manufacturers it will hit a lot. And there are problems with Indian producers. First, because of quality, and secondly, they can not bring the drug.
Therefore, I share the concern of the European Business Association.
- Is there a danger that some patients will be forced to switch to less effective or cheaper analogues? Can it worsen the quality of treatment and cause additional health risks?
So it is possible. That is, if the market goes, conditional, brands, and only cheaper options remain, then in cheaper variants there is always a risk that there will be poor quality. It works with everything. One thing is to buy a brand car and the other is some fake. With medicines the same.
- What other risks do you see in the new pharmacy adjustment for patients? In your opinion, what changes can make the situation more balanced so that those who need constant treatment are not injured?
The first thing I would do was forbidding access to our market of cheap Indian producers. That is, it is impossible to completely abandon Hindus. Good Hindus, those who have registration in Europe, should be left. Everyone else needs to be removed from the market. Moreover, we are working with Europe now in unison. Sooner or later we will enter the European Union. And Europe does not allow cheap and substandard Hindus to its market.
The second is that you need to expand the Affordable Medicines Program as much as possible and close the main areas of treatment for Ukrainian patients. In this way, we will save the market and let the patient choose whether he is taking a cheap option for free, whether he is paying and taking an expensive option. So European markets work.
Reimbursement is a chance to avoid a shortage of those drugs that are actually treating . Because, if the market disappears, conditionally, all sorts of hepatoprotectors, neuroprotectors or anti -virus, then no one will die. This is fuflomecin. Ukrainians are really bought by Fuflomecinovka. If they disappear, nothing wrong will happen. And if antibiotics disappear, conditional, original, then it will be such a serious shock.
Of course, you still need to look at the agreement. I understand that this bill is intended to break the agreement of two distributors. It cannot be said that it is not, but it has developed, most historically, not through a conversation. That is, others worked worse, and in the end, these two distributors - Optima and Badm - survived in the competitive market. So they survived and the smaller ones died. It is possible to give two to three distributors to work in this market. But these are very thin tools. Americans are able to do it somehow. And here they stupidly hit the law, made these 20% and it is not a very good story.
- Did your Fund apply to the Government or Public Authorities with proposals for a more balanced regulation of medicines?
We now think about a petition to the President to vect this law. But we have no consensus.
We are now advocating, the first, the law on parallel imports, because it will not solve a radically problem, but will give the market a little more air. It will be possible to import drugs from Europe by parallel imports, and not only from Europe. And second, we propose to expand the reimbursement program to the Ministry of Health. We, on the part of the oncology community, have proposed several molecules that need to be introduced into reimbursement, and thus prevent their disappearance from the market, and vice versa to leave competition in the market.
