OREANDA-NEWS. April 24, 2012. The Ministry of Health has the task to prevent any shortage of drugs in connection with the implementation of a pilot project in Ukraine to establish reference prices for drugs to treat hypertension. The Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said that in the social network Facebook.

"It has been placed a challenge before the Ministry of Health to prevent any shortage of medicines. That is, our home-made products have to ensure complete equivalent replacement of expensive imported products" - Mykola Azarov said, adding that the domestic pharmaceutical companies in recent years have not only gone to the European standards for manufacturing drugs, but also modernized its production. "And products’ quality of our pharmaceutical companies, which are working on these standards, is not only not inferior, but superior to some European companies, because they are more modern than many European companies" - he said. Equipment installed in the Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies, is a "front line" that is in pharmacology.

The PM said that next week the Ministry of Health and major importers of medicines are to sign a memorandum on ensuring a full range of drugs needed for our citizens. "In next week between the Ministry of Health and all the major importers of drugs will be signed a memorandum, which will contain the obligations of companies operating in our market, to provide a full range of drugs needed for our citizens, especially those that are not produced in Ukraine. We will closely monitor compliance with the memorandum", - Mykola Azarov said.

The Prime Minister also reminded that three laboratories to assess the quality and consistency of medicines start to operate in Ukraine last year. These laboratories are equipped with modern installation and they can carry out a qualitative analysis of the composition of medicines.