On Saturday, December 14, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko is convening a meeting with representatives of the pharmaceutical market, including manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains. The main topic of the meeting is to discuss the scandalous amendments to the draft law No. 11493, which may lead to a deterioration in the availability of medicines and their significant rise in price. UNN learned about this from its own sources.
Amendments to the draft law No. 11493 have already caused a wide response in the pharmaceutical community. Specialized associations have categorically opposed the innovations and warn of significant negative consequences for the pharmaceutical industry and society as a whole - medicines may become significantly more expensive, and pharmacies in remote and frontline areas may be closed altogether. Industry experts point out that the application of the e-catalog to the relationship between the manufacturer/importer of medicines and the pharmacy chain will create additional bureaucracy and may cause delays in the supply of medicines. And the proposal to limit sales to one business entity to 15% raises concerns that pharmacies will not be able to obtain sufficient stocks of medicines, which will result in an artificial shortage for customers.
UNN's interlocutors in the pharmaceutical community praised the Minister's willingness to listen to their position and discuss the risks of the proposed changes. Market participants hope that the Ministry of Health will take into account their arguments and do everything possible to protect the interests of Ukrainian citizens.
"We see that the Minister of Health is really interested in resolving the current situation. His initiative to hold an open dialogue with industry representatives gives us hope that the decision will be balanced and aimed at maintaining the availability of medicines," said representatives of the pharmaceutical market.
The pharmaceutical industry hopes that the Minister's position will be the key to resolving this issue, as his actions are crucial for stabilizing the situation on the pharmaceutical market.
Context
At the end of November, the Verkhovna Rada adopted as a basis the draft law No. 11493 on amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Medicines". Its primary purpose is to simplify the registration of medicines for centralized procurement. However, the amendments to be introduced in the second reading have caused significant concern among pharmacists and specialized associations. Among other things, pharmaceutical market experts are concerned that the process of preparing these amendments may have signs of corruption aimed at lobbying the interests of certain pharmaceutical players, and the amendments themselves will lead to a loss of tax revenues.
At the meeting on December 9, the Committee on National Health planned to consider the scandalous amendments to the draft law No. 11493, but due to the active position of the pharmaceutical market participants, this issue was postponed . However, the pharmaceutical industry fears that the consideration of the amendments was postponed deliberately to "sneak" them through when the professional community's outrage subsides and there is no time for a comprehensive discussion. According to the agency's interlocutors, the consideration was postponed to December 19, and the committee may meet in the morning, and then the amendments to the law will be sent directly to the Verkhovna Rada and voted on the same day.