Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies are ready to produce around 1,000 PCR tests per day, which will allow them to satisfy the demand for PCR tests in Ukraine in full, Deputy Health Minister, chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday.
“We expect to receive 22,000 PCR test systems from Ukrainian producers, which will allow carrying out around 2 million tests. The systems are expected to be ready next week. Ukrainian producers are ready to make around 1,000 PCR tests per day, which will allow satisfying the demand for testing in Ukraine in full,” he said.
The deputy minister said that currently Ukraine has around 250,000 PCR test systems in stock and added that Ukraine carries out not less tests than other European countries during the epidemic.
“We should realize that Europe is 15-20 days ahead in terms of the epidemic development. We monitor the dynamics and developments in Spain, Italy and France. If we look at the number of tests, Ukraine carries out not less of them than other countries. Thus, the testing issue is not a problem. Ukraine is ready to carry out tests,” he said.
Liashko also said that the Health Ministry will open a hotline for the patients whose requests for coronavirus (COVID-19) testing were rejected.
Growth of sales under the Affordable Medicines program that reimburses the cost of medicines has suspended, and pharmaceutical manufacturers are waiting for the expansion of the list of diseases under the program, Marketing and Sales Director at PJSC Farmak Susana Khalilova has said. “As for the Affordable Medicines program, it seems that the further quantitative growth in sales of medicines has stopped. A fuss about it has fallen. A more or less clear number of patients has been formed,” she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine. She said that “it was simply a “madhouse” at the beginning of the Affordable Medicines program – pharma companies could not guess the necessary number of medicines.”
“A year has passed and we understand approximately how many and what preparations are needed. Patients calmed down a bit and do not buy two or three packages to have them for the future. It took time to establish the process,” she said.
According to Khalilova, the Ministry of Health had to calculate the number of medicines required for participation in the program. “If the state at the very beginning have said how much money it would spend on a certain molecule or announced the approximate consumption of the concrete drug, it would have been much easier,” she said. In addition, Khalilova said that Farmak receives information on cases of a lack of budget funds for the Affordable Medicines program.
Farmak is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU).
