International procurement brings new medicines to the Ukrainian market: the case of transplant medication
May 24, 2017
Kyiv, May 23th, 2017 – While lowering the price paid by the Government to purchase well established medicines, international procurement is also bringing new medicines, previously unseen in Ukraine, to the country’s patients. The current list of registered medicines in Ukraine counts about 10,000 products, while a lot of high-quality medicines, mostly generics, are still not present on the market.
As an example, a new medicine for patients in pre- and post-transplant period was recently registered in Ukraine as a result of the international procurement. In April, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine issued a Decree on registration for Mycophenolic acid produced in Canada. This medication won a tender for supply of Mycophenolic acid conducted by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) under the funds of the state budget of Ukraine and was registered via a procedure of authenticity check for the medicines, which are submitted for state registration for procurement by the specialized international organizations.
As a result, the previous market monopoly for 180 mg dosage of Mycophenolic acid was broken and this ensured a 23% decrease in prices, allowing to save UAH 5 mln of public funds.
Janthomas Hiemstra, UNDP Country Director in Ukraine, said: “As one of the organizations of the United Nations, UNDP is strongly committed to increasing the access to medicines around the globe. Such initiatives are supported through the High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, established by the UN Secretary-General in November of 2015. No one should be in a situation when they cannot afford life-saving medicines because they are too expensive, or simply not available in the country. We will continue our work to help the people of Ukraine have access to more, high-quality and, at the same time, affordable medicines.”
As of today, UNDP has utilized 1,38 billion UAH for procurement of medicines under the 2016 budget, which constitutes 67% of the funds allocated to the organization. The organization already delivered medicines for UAH 380 mln to Ukraine. UNDP and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine are closely coordinating their work to ensure citizens of Ukraine receive life-saving medicines – around UAH 280 mln saved by UNDP will be available for additional procurement.
See the complete list of medicines currently procured by UNDP under the Agreement with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.
Background information
Transplantation techniques save the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients around the world. The amount of transplantations performed in Ukraine per year is no more than 150, while the annual need for transplantation is much higher: 1,000 heart surgeries, 1,500 liver surgeries, and 2,000 kidney surgeries.
Organ or other anatomical materials transplantation is a medical intervention for health indications for cases when there’s no alternative treatment. Immunosuppressive therapy is vital for patients after transplantation.
The aim of centralized procurement of immunosuppressive products is provision of health institutions with immunosuppressive products to deliver medical care to patients, who will undergo transplantation of organs or other anatomical materials or who underwent such transplantations.
