President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree giving effect to the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to reduce prices for basic and most popular medicines in Ukraine by 30% starting March 1, UNN reports.
By his decree, Zelenskyy decided to enact the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of February 12, 2025 "On Additional Measures to Ensure the Availability of Medicines for Ukrainians". The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the NSDC decision .
The Decree comes into force on the day of its publication.
As stated in the NSDC decision, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decided to take note of the information regarding the intentions of the participants of the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine to reduce prices for the most popular essential medicines by 30 percent from March 1, 2025, in order to ensure their availability to the population of Ukraine.
The NSDC decision instructed the Cabinet of Ministers, in particular:
- take additional measures to ensure an effective systemic dialogue with pharmaceutical market participants to reduce and stabilize prices for medicines;
- ensure the development and submission of a draft law to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine:
a) within two weeks - the draft Law of Ukraine on Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Medicines" No. 2469-IX of July 28, 2022, regarding its entry into force on January 1, 2027;
b) within one month - the draft Law of Ukraine on the implementation of the Bolar Rule into national legislation;
- Ensure amendments to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 955 “On Measures to Stabilize Prices for Medicines and Medical Devices” dated October 17, 2008, within a week, providing for the establishment of marginal supply and sales markups of no more than 10% percent charged by distributors of medicines to wholesale prices for all duly registered medicines in Ukraine and regressive marginal trade (retail) markups to purchase prices for all registered medicines in Ukraine starting March 1, 202
- to take measures to establish a ban from March 1, 2025, on the provision of marketing services, services for the promotion of medicines, information and other services related to the sale of medicines to the end user, in respect of medicines used by legal entities regardless of their organizational and legal form and form of ownership, by individual entrepreneurs engaged in economic activities for the production of medicines, wholesale, retail trade in medicines, import of medicines
- to resolve, in accordance with the established procedure, within one month, the issue of expanding the list of medicines, in particular for the treatment of chronic diseases, the cost of which is reimbursed by the National Health Service of Ukraine under the medical guarantees program under reimbursement agreements;
- jointly with the regional and Kyiv city state administrations, within two weeks, to work out the issue of establishing pharmacies as structural units of state and/or municipal healthcare institutions with the introduction of minimum markups (surcharges) on the medicines sold.
- The Ministry of Health, together with the National Health Service, should ensure monitoring of the status of implementation of contracts for medical services under the medical guarantees program with monthly reporting through 2025 in terms of ensuring the availability and use of the required list of medicines by healthcare providers.
- To recommend that the Prosecutor General's Office, together with law enforcement agencies and other authorized bodies, take additional measures to identify and counteract financial abuse or non-transparent pricing that leads to artificially high prices.
Recall
The day before, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said following a meeting of the National Security and Defense Councilthat there is a way to reduce the price of the top 100 medicines by 30% starting March 1 - the most important medicines for Ukrainians.
On February 10, Zelenskiy saidthat prices for medicines in Ukraine are absolutely inadequate, and that a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council is being prepared to lower prices.
Last week, Zelenskyy saidthat a decision must be made to reduce drug prices. The pharmacy business supported the President's statement. The Pharmacy Professional Association of Ukraine public union sent to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine
Declaration of cooperation on reducing the cost of medicines, which has already been signed by a number of large pharmacy chains.
It sets out the following obligations of all market participants:
- National manufacturers of medicines reduce the selling prices of their products by a certain percentage compared to the prices as of January 1, 2025.
- Distributors reduce wholesale prices in proportion to the manufacturer, which will affect the entire logistics network.
- Pharmacies, for their part, reduce retail prices for medicines, providing the end user with a real reduction in the cost of drugs, i.e., they apply a discount on their margin proportional to the manufacturer.
The memorandum is also expected to be signed by leading Ukrainian manufacturers and distributors.