Since the beginning of 2024, the demand for neurological drugs, including antidepressants, as well as drugs used to treat dementia, epilepsy and antipsychotics, has been growing, Yevhen Zaika, regional director of the Acino pharma company, shares his observations.
“We see a significant increase in demand for neurological drugs: antidepressants, drugs for the treatment of dementia, epilepsy and antipsychotics,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.
Zaika noted an increase in demand for cardiac and endocrinology drugs, as well as an increase in the share of nutritional supplements in the sales structure.
Commenting on the current situation in the pharma market, the expert noted that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, logistics has risen in price by 20-30%. To counteract blackouts, the Pharma Start plant in Kiev, which produces products for Acino, was equipped with two diesel generators, the office and production are provided with Starlink Internet.
Zaika said that Acino currently has 17 new products in development.
At the same time, he emphasized that Ukrainian requirements for the quality and manufacture of drugs are “very severe.”
“For example, the Ukrainian market applies the requirement for separate registration of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which significantly increases the development time of new products, and also increases the cost of both developing and maintaining the active registration status of the product. In Europe, where we all aspire to, there is simply no such thing as AFI registration,” he said.
Commenting on the strategy of the company’s participation in budget procurement, Zaika noted that the volume of tender shipments grows annually in hryvnia equivalent, but the share of budget shipments remains approximately at the same level.
As reported, pharmacy sales in Ukraine in January-February 2024 increased in monetary terms by 21.6% compared to the same period of 2023 – up to UAH 32.331 billion, in physical terms – by 2.9% to 201.828 million packages. Pharmacy sales of medicinal products for two months of 2024 amounted to UAH 25.265 billion, which is 20.65% more than in the same period of 2023. At the same time, sales of drugs in physical terms increased by 2.6% to 142.869 million packs.
ACINO, neurological drugs, UKRAINE, YEVHEN ZAIKA
