Closing of pharmacies in frontline areas can lead to social explosion - Head of Kharkiv District Administration (VIDEO)

Pharmacies are critical to meeting the needs of the local population, especially in frontline areas. Their closure could lead to a “social explosion”. This was stated in an exclusive commentary to UNN by the head of the Kharkiv District Military Administration, Volodymyr Usov.

This could be a social explosion if the local authorities fail to cope with this challenge and fail to provide people with medicines. Because in 2022, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we remember that the first thing people were looking for was medicine and bread. These were the two things that were in short supply for about a week or two. Pharmacies, educational institutions and local authorities are located in the centers of settlements, and the occupiers hit the center to demoralize

After the de-occupation, some pharmacies in Kharkiv district resumed their work, some of which were destroyed again as a result of shelling. However, at present, thanks to the work of mobile pharmacies in the frontline areas, even those very close to the fighting, it is possible to provide the population with sufficient medicines.

Context

There is a risk of pharmacies closing, particularly in remote and frontline areas, due to the likely adoption of controversial amendments to draft law No. 11493. A number of pharmaceutical and business associationshave opposed the amendments currently being discussed by MPs. In particular, these are initiatives to apply the e-catalog to the relationship between the manufacturer/importer of medicines and the pharmacy chain, to limit the sales of products to one business entity at 20% and to prohibit the conclusion of marketing agreements.