OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2013. A Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko chaired a meeting dedicated to issues of the development of national pharmaceutical market.

“For the first time we have a meeting in such an enlarged composition inviting not only officials, but also direct participants of the process – Ukrainian producers of medicines,” K.Gryshchenko said at the beginning of the event.

There were participating in the meeting representatives of Ministry of Health, State Service for Medications, Finance Ministry, Ministry of Incomes and Fees, State Service for Drug Control and heads of leading pharmaceutical enterprises of Ukraine.

The Vice Prime Minister emphasized that securing quality and availability of medications for our citizens is a key priority of the state’s leadership and the Government. In his opinion, competition on the national pharmacy market is strengthening more and more and it becomes more attractive, including for the foreign companies. “Only in the last year the market grew by 15% and amounted UAH 34.2 billion. It is a significant showing. Against the background of global financial turbulence the national pharmacology demonstrates sustainable growth: in the previous year your enterprises realized on the domestic market by 16.7% drugs more than in 2011, just at UAH 9.7 billion,” noted Kostyantyn Gryshchenko.

At the same time, according to him, the national pharmaceutical market demonstrates also negative tendencies, which lay in the fact that six out of ten packages of drugs sold in pharmacies are of Ukrainian production, but two thirds of all the money of our consumers go to foreign producers, who in the majority of cases sell similar medications but several times more expensively.

“Hence, over USD 2 billion is paid by Ukraine to other states for the medicines the majority of which we are capable to be produced with our own resources. We do not stand against foreign medicines. The strategic aim of leaders of the state is to increase availability of medications for Ukrainian citizens and broaden domestic manufacturing of drugs,” Kostyantyn Gryshchenko underlined.

In the course of talks the interlocutors exchanged with views concerning most actual issues of development of the pharmaceutical market. Besides, there was discussed purchase pursuant to the key state programs of foreign preparations that have analogues in Ukraine.