The Rada told when to expect cheaper medicines and why antibiotics have risen in price in Ukraine
10 June 07:51
Medicines prices are a matter of public concern. During the war, the cost of medicines hit Ukrainians’ wallets so hard that the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine decided to regulate pricing. Already in February this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted the NSDC decision “On Additional Measures to Ensure the Availability of Medicines for Ukrainians”. Its goal is to reduce the prices of medicines by setting maximum supply and sales markups of no more than ten percent. When should Ukrainians expect new price tags in pharmacies, and why, instead of the announced price reduction, some medicines have increased significantly in price
According to him, medicines will become cheaper. And it is likely that this will happen after a special “marketing resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers”.
“Medicines will become cheaper. I think it will happen after the resolution on marketing, where the marketing margin will be smaller and not so high. I think we will see a decrease in drug prices after the decree. Because marketing, as we understand it, is always formed in the manufacturer’s price. I can’t say exactly when the decree on marketing will be adopted. It does not depend on us. The Ministry of Health submits its proposals to the regulator, and then the Cabinet of Ministers will consider the draft,” says Kuzminykh.
According to him, there are currently two versions of the “marketing” resolution. The first version of the draft stipulates that the marketing markup cannot exceed 12% of the total turnover of medicines in a pharmacy. The second draft of the document proposes to transfer the regulation of the percentage that can be paid for marketing to the cost of the drug, not marketing only one name of an OTC drug, but a group of drugs sold by a particular manufacturer.
Marketing for OTC drugs is proposed to be limited to 18%. In addition, it is proposed to allow up to 2% of conditional marketing of a particular manufacturer’s sales of all prescription drugs. However, in the latest version of the resolution, these percentages have been increased to 20% for the OTC group and 3% for the prescription group. In general, the second option results in 8-9% of marketing from the total volume of medicines.
“That is, there are two types of documents. I hope the second one will be adopted. But I personally cannot predict 100%,” adds the MP.
According to him, prices for medicines will change “individually” in this case, meaning that different categories of drugs will become cheaper in different ways.
Kuzminykh adds that 300 items of medicines have already fallen in price by about 30%. The top 100 items – by 30%. However, some groups of drugs have risen in price at the same time.
“Why? I can only voice my own opinion. It used to be like this: pharmacy chains sold individual drugs, the cost of which reached huge figures. But in order to be competitive, they began to reduce the cost of medicines and essentially break even, but they received a marketing bonus from the manufacturer as a separate payment. This allowed them to keep the price of some drugs more or less pleasant for the consumer,” he said.
At the same time, according to the tax authorities, they allegedly received 6% of marketing. But in fact, they received 20-30% for some drugs, received them for different legal entities and under different sauces. In the end, this led to excessive profits for certain networks. Only what was provided by marketing was sold.
Accordingly, after the markup regulation system was introduced, some drugs became more expensive not because their cost increased, but because the shadow component of profit legalization disappeared.
“Now we have regulated the margins, i.e. 25% and 35%: for antibiotics, prescription drugs – 25%, and OTC drugs – 35%, plus a ban on marketing. Therefore, we are now seeing a slight rise in prices for some drugs that were heavily marketed. But this is no longer a price increase, but the legalization of profits and filling budgets. In other words, the price formation scheme has become more transparent,” added Sergiy Kuzminykh.
He emphasizes that it is quite easy for an average Ukrainian to trace hidden “tricks” with drug prices through marketing pharmacies:
“I used to come to the pharmacy earlier, look at a drug for 100 UAH, and through the Tabletochki website I could buy it 20% cheaper. This is not possible when everything is transparent.”
The MP emphasizes that only a transparent pricing scheme and clear rules can protect the interests of all market players: when it is profitable for both the manufacturer and pharmacies to operate, they have reasonable incomes, and medicines will be more affordable for patients.
“We need to clearly understand the pricing of the manufacturer. By the type of reference. If the reference is done correctly, it will lead to the understanding that the manufacturer cannot raise its cost anymore. Distributors will work with a clear margin and clear restrictions. The same applies to pharmacies. The Ministry of Health is now actively working in this direction. I think that by the end of this year, it should be completed: the law “On Pharmacy Activities” should be developed and voted by the Verkhovna Rada, and reference pricing should be developed and improved license conditions should be launched,” the politician predicts.
Announcement from the Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health has announced that in 2025 the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine will undergo an important update: pharmacies will be entitled to compete directly in providing marketing services to pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Minister Viktor Lyashko, in particular, assured that there would be no restrictions on the percentage of marketing for pharmacies, and this would allow pharmacies to compete with each other. This should benefit smaller chains that previously did not have access to marketing.
In addition, if earlier manufacturers were forced to pay pharmacies just to get on the shelf, without transparency in terms of services. The Ministry is currently working on safeguards to ensure that marketing does not affect the rise in the price of medicines, but stimulates the promotion of quality products in a competitive market.
As reported by
