The consumption of antibiotics for some groups in Ukraine has grown 5-6 times, Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.
At the same time, the minister noted that the situation is under control.
“The consumption of antibiotics in Ukraine has grown by 5-6 times for some groups. I held meetings with pharmaceutical companies, we have a controlled situation, medical institutions are provided with a two-three-month supply of antibiotics,” he said.
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.
Тhe Ministry of Health of Ukraine intends to fully implement 2D coding [special labeling of packages to prevent counterfeiting] of medicines in Ukraine in two and a half years, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
“Yesterday, I had a meeting with representatives of leading pharmaceutical companies in Ukraine. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss an action plan in the ministry regarding the pharmaceutical market. The first thing we voiced was the introduction of 2D-coding of all the medicines that are used in Ukraine. When this is implemented, the number of counterfeit medicines in pharmacies will be reduced to almost zero. We believe that in two-two and a half years we will be able to completely switch to 2D coding. We will move gradually: first, we will transfer to 2D coding all medicines according to the reimbursement program, and only after that all import goods,” he said.
According to the minister, it is also planned to completely switch to electronic prescriptions.
“E-prescription is now used in the Affordable Medicines program. We believe that the electronic prescription should be expanded as much as possible in our country, including gradually getting rid of paper prescriptions so that medicines are dispensed exclusively on prescriptions that can be controlled. It also has an economic effect, in this case we envisage a reduction in the prices of medicines. The e-prescription contains the active ingredient, and in the pharmacy you can choose a drug for a suitable price,” Stepanov said.
The Health Ministry of Ukraine has paid for transplant surgeries that will be held in 2020, reads a statement on the ministry’s website.
According to the statement, the ministry transferred the payments to ten participants of the pilot project for organ transplantation whose applications were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on December 18, 2019.
The money was allocated from the national budget for 2019. As soon as the first tranche is spent, another one will be transferred from the national budget for 2020.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers extended the pilot project for organ transplantation for 2020.
All medical institutions that have a license to provide organ transplantation services were included in the list of participants in the pilot project.
In addition, the government approved the tariffs for transplantation of organs and other anatomic materials: kidney allotransplantation (from living or deceased donor) will cost UAH 323,798; ABO incompatible kidney allotransplantation – UAH 721,230; heart or heart-lung transplant – UAH 535,280; full-size or partial liver transplant – UAH 855,039; donor nephrectomy – UAH 33,561; donor liver resection – UAH 116,130; organ recovery from deceased donor – UAH 74,086; donor tissue matching (antigen testing via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method) – UAH 18,630; allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, including cell recovery stage – UAH 1.36 million; autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant, including cell recovery stage – UAH 1.308 million.
The government also allowed using the funds to pay for hematopoietic stem cell transplant from abroad, as well as making prepayments for transplant services and use the funds remaining from 2019 in 2020.
Health Ministry of Ukraine has initiated rescheduling of a pilot project on 2D coding (the special QR code on packages) of medicine packages, acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Due to the need to bring 2D coding into line with the EU requirements, we will initiate amendments into the government’s decree, which envisaged the launch of a pilot project from September 1, 2019. Producers and government agencies were not ready for this,” she said.
According to Suprun, profile associations backed rescheduling of the project, in particular because Economic Development and Trade Ministry failed to work out the procedures for introduction of this system.
Director General of Health Ministry’s Pharmaceutical Directorate Oleksandr Komarida has reported that the required amendments now are being drafted for the respective government’s decree and by the end of the week they will be put for a public discussion.
According to Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Manufacturers of Innovative Medicines Vitaliy Hordiyenko, the amendments will affect the content of the information that will be encoded.
He noted that at present production sites of foreign manufacturers had necessary equipment for applying coding, however, it is not used for medicines manufactured for Ukraine, since manufacturers do not know what information the code should contain.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a pilot project on introduction of 2D control marking and monitoring of medicines, which is part of the Concept for the Implementation of the State Policy for Prevention of Medication Falsification.
As expected, the project to be fulfilled from September 1, 2019 to December 31, 2020.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry hopes to fully launch the transplant surgery system by the end of 2019, acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun has said.
“By the middle of 2019 we would be able to make more bone marrow transplant surgeries, and before 2020 the organ transplant system will start operating,” she said on Channel 5 TV.
As reported, some activists and lawmakers expressed fears that all transplant surgery in Ukraine may be suspended from January 1, 2019, as the current law on transplant surgery will expire. The new law on human organs donation adopted in 2018 is to take effect on January 1 and it foresees the functioning of public transplantation register. At present, these registers have not yet been created.
