Using the services of the British purchasing agency Crown Agents allowed the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to save more than $62 million, or 40% of the budget funds, in five years.
This is stated in a study conducted by Crown Agents and the Center for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex.
According to the study, in the first year of Crown Agents’ cooperation with the Ministry of Health, more than 75% of medicines were purchased at a lower cost than in the previous year.
“The overall amount lost to corrupt practices in healthcare is estimated to be around $500 billion annually, and procurement is the biggest risk area,” Liz David-Barrett, the director of the Center for the Study of Corruption at the University of Sussex, said.
“COVID-19 has provided a window of opportunity to tackle corrupt procurement practices in healthcare systems across the world,” she said.
The British purchasing agency Crown Agents delivered the first 117,000 doses out of 167,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 to Ukraine from Belgium on Wednesday.
Crown Agents told Interfax-Ukraine that the second batch of vaccine (50,000 doses) is expected on Thursday.
According to head of Crown Agents in Ukraine Tetiana Korotchenko, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was transported in compliance with all storage rules under the required temperature conditions.
In February, Crown Agents delivered 500,000 doses of Covishield vaccine to Ukraine, developed by AstraZeneca in cooperation with the University of Oxford.
The Ministry of Health, with the involvement of the British procurement agency Crown Agents, will purchase 1.41 million doses of influenza vaccines to vaccinate medical workers, educators, police and border guards, the press service of Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has reported.
The changes to government resolutions No. 255 dated March 13, 2019 and No. 129 dated February 19, 2020 were approved by the government at a meeting on Monday.
The agency will procure vaccines at the expense of the remaining balance of funds for 2019, provided for the procurement of drugs to accompany patients with cancer.
“All available vaccines have passed WHO prequalification and confirmed their safety. The countries of origin are the leaders in the production of vaccines in the world – France, the Netherlands and South Korea,” the press service said.
