Minister of Health Lyashko admits to reducing the range of medicines in pharmacies

Health Minister Viktor Lyashko does not rule out a possible reduction in the range of medicines in pharmacies, which could affect the availability of medicines for Ukrainians. He said this during a telethon, UNN reports.

“Anything is possible, but we are working with the entire market to prevent this,” Lyashko said in response to a question about whether the new pharmaceutical market regulations would lead to a reduction in the range of medicines in pharmacies.

According to him, five pharmacy chains control 35% of pharmacy outlets, but at the same time carry out 75% of all financial transactions in the market. The remaining 65% of outlets belong to non-network pharmacies. 

The minister threatened pharmacies that in case of “manipulations” on their part, the Antimonopoly Committee would open cases, and the Ministry of Health, as a regulator, could review the licenses of pharmacies and distributors.

It is quite difficult to manipulate this market so that there are no medicines, so we have warned everyone that if there are manipulations, we will initiate appropriate cases - both by the antitrust law and by us as a regulator that issues retail and wholesale licenses. A pharmacy is first and foremost a healthcare facility, and it must do everything possible to dispense medicines to the end user

Thus, the Ministry of Health has actually hinted to businesses: either accept the new rules of the game or they will find a reason for sanctions.

At the same time, it is possible that the disappearance of goods from the assortment may be the initiative of the manufacturers themselves, who will not want to produce and release medicines at new prices. 

Recall

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that a decision must be made to reduce drug prices. 

The pharmacy business supported the President's statement and the Pharmacy Professional Association of Ukraine  sent a Declaration of Cooperation on Reducing the Cost of Medicines to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, 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 consumer with a real reduction in the cost of drugs, i.e., they apply a discount on their margin proportional to the manufacturer.

However, on February 10, Zelenskyy statedthat the prices of medicines in Ukraine are absolutely inadequate and announced a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council to reduce prices. Already on February 12, following the meeting, Zelenskyy announcedthat there was a way to reduce the price of the top 100 medicines by 30% starting March 1 - the most important medicines for Ukrainians. 

On February 13, the President enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to reduce the cost of 100 medicines by 30%. Other medicines should become cheaper by 20%.