Instead of cheaper medicines - pharmacy closures. Who benefits from the destruction of the pharmaceutical market and why?

Serhiy Kuzminykh, a Member of Parliament and head of the subcommittee on pharmacy, does not stop in his attempts to "remake" the rules of the pharmaceutical market. Last week, he registered a bill on the regulation of marketing relations between pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies. In the explanatory note, Kuzminykh once again accused pharmacies of overpricing and proposed that the government determine the maximum volumes of marketing payments. However, according to experts and market representatives, the MP's arguments are manipulative. After all, more than 70% of the cost of medicines is formed by the manufacturers themselves. While pharmacies have only about a fifth of the price structure, UNN reports.

"Kuzminykh's Pharmacy Law" – a threat to independent business and patients

In parallel with the regulation of marketing payments, Kuzminykh announced a new bill "On Pharmacies", and has even registered it in the Verkhovna Rada. According to the text of the "Draft Law on Pharmacy Activity" No. 13684, the initiator Kuzminykh threatens the market: to limit the right of ownership of pharmacies - no more than four "in one hand", to oblige pharmacy owners to have a pharmaceutical education, and to limit the names of goods that can be sold in pharmacies.

In fact, if this bill is implemented, it will mean the closure of a significant number of pharmacies. Both the requirement for owners to have a specialized education and the limitation of the number of pharmacies "in one hand" create a risk of a sharp reduction in tax revenues to the budget, a decrease in jobs for pharmacists, and a gradual transition of the entire pharmaceutical sector to "fragmentation into individual entrepreneurs". This is at a time when Ukraine critically needs every hryvnia.

This is not the first time Kuzminykh prepares bills that kill entire branches of the pharmaceutical sector. This was the case with bill No. 4122 regarding dietary supplements: the MP prepared it behind closed doors for a year, without the participation of dietary supplement market players. The market learned about the bill only after the fact. As Olena Prudnikova, head of the NGO "Pharmrada", notes, such approaches to work are a classic manifestation of lobbying.

Lobbying instead of reform

Analyzing Serhiy Kuzminykh's initiatives, which have recently been concentrated precisely on the pharmaceutical market, one can conclude that the MP's actions have nothing to do with caring for patients. His public rhetoric time and again miraculously coincides with the official statements of the pharmaceutical giant "Darnytsia". And Kuzminykh's legislative initiatives, it seems, play "into the hands" of the pharmaceutical giant.

Moreover, the connection between the MP and this company is not traced for the first time. In 2016-2018, the Kuzminykh brothers' charitable foundation received over UAH 9.5 million from the "Zagoria Family Charitable Foundation", the owners of "Darnytsia". At the same time, Kuzminykh was a member of the Ministry of Health commission, which made decisions on terminating or extending the validity of registration certificates for medicines. The NACP then officially stated a possible conflict of interest in the actions of the future MP.

Today, the situation looks even more egregious. At the center of Kuzminykh's legislative initiatives is a strict limitation of the pharmacy business or small manufacturers and a simultaneous expansion of the capabilities of pharmaceutical giants.

At the same time, the real effect of Kuzminykh's already implemented "reforms" turned out to be the opposite of what was promised. The ban on marketing payments, which he has been promoting since last December and which has actually been in effect for almost half a year (since March 1, 2025), has not lowered drug prices, but has only exacerbated accessibility problems: pharmacies are closing mobile pharmacy points, which were the only source of medicines for remote and hard-to-reach regions, patients have lost discounts and bonus programs. Meanwhile, manufacturers, according to experts, began to earn UAH 500 million more monthly.

Thus, Kuzminykh's initiatives always lead to results that are primarily beneficial to large pharmaceutical companies. Ukrainians, on the other hand, do not receive the promised reduction in drug prices and, on the contrary, risk losing access to pharmacies in some regions.

In parallel with the regulation of marketing payments, Kuzminykh announced a new bill "On Pharmacies", and has even registered it in the Verkhovna Rada. According to the text of the "Draft Law on Pharmacy Activity" No. 13684, the initiator Kuzminykh threatens the market: to limit the right of ownership of pharmacies - no more than four "in one hand", to oblige pharmacy owners to have a pharmaceutical education, and to limit the names of goods that can be sold in pharmacies.

In fact, if this bill is implemented, it will mean the closure of a significant number of pharmacies. Both the requirement for owners to have a specialized education and the limitation of the number of pharmacies "in one hand" create a risk of a sharp reduction in tax revenues to the budget, a decrease in jobs for pharmacists, and a gradual transition of the entire pharmaceutical sector to "fragmentation into individual entrepreneurs". This is at a time when Ukraine critically needs every hryvnia.

This is not the first time Kuzminykh prepares bills that kill entire branches of the pharmaceutical sector. This was the case with bill No. 4122 regarding dietary supplements: the MP prepared it behind closed doors for a year, without the participation of dietary supplement market players. The market learned about the bill only after the fact. As Olena Prudnikova, head of the NGO "Pharmrada", notes, such approaches to work are a classic manifestation of lobbying.