Upharmacia January 2017 (Special Edition) | Page 15

Upharmacia January 2017
HEALTHCARE NEWS
JANUARY 2017
T he G overnment P ostponed
R eference P ricing to A pr 1
On Feb 1, the Cabinet of
Ministers approved the decision
to postpone the introduction
of reference pricing for some
categories of drugs from Feb 1
to Apr 1.
Such decision was made after
the acting Head of the MOH
Ulana Suprun stated that
the implementation of the
mechanism would require
a longer transitional period
associated with the gradual sale
of drug residues.
“We cooperate with represen-
tatives of the pharmaceutical
market, and already have
information that some
producers reduced prices by
15-30%, others are continuing
the cooperation,” Mrs. Suprun
stated. “Therefore, we want to
give them a longer transitional
period to ensure the provision
of affordable medicines the
population”.
Earlier, the MOH has already
postponed the reference pricing
from Jan 1 to Feb 1 in order to
provide pharmacies the period
during which they could sell
the residues of drugs, which
had been supplied under the
wholesale prices that exceed the
maximum level.
Despite this, the market
www.upharma-c.com
operators still expressed the
concern about the possibility
of the disappearance of some
original products of foreign
manufacturers due to their
inability to decrease the prices.
G overnment P lans to R educe
D uration of H ospitalization
and I ncrease the N umber of
P rimary C are P hysicians
Within the government’s Plan of
priority actions for the period
up to 2020, it is planned to
decrease the average duration
of hospitalization form 11.8
days to 9.2 days. Herewith,
the number of primary care
physicians is expected to grow
from 7 ths to 20 ths.
It is noted that a lot of
healthcare funds in Ukraine are
used ineffectively. Ukraine is
the fourth country in the world
by the number of hospital beds
per capita, while the healthcare
indicators are among the worst
in Europe.
Therefore, in 2017, the
government plans to
introduce new funding model
for healthcare system with
emphasis on primary care
and to define the guaranteed
package of services.
EBA A sks for C lear
E xplanations on R eference
P ricing and R eimbursement
European Business
Association (EBA) appealed
the Prime Minister of Ukraine
expressing the concerns of
the pharmaceutical industry
regarding the unclear
understanding of the norms
on reference pricing and
reimbursement of some
categories of drugs.
The EBA stated that the lack
of clear explanations could
lead to the deficit of the drugs,
which are subject to the new
mechanism.
The Association noted that
market participants need
clarification regarding the
possibility of free circulation
of medicines in the pharmacy
network, if the price of the
drugs will exceed the calculated
threshold level for Ukraine
The EBA also requested the
Government to publish a
clarification about the expected
results of the implementation of
the new regulation for the three
nosologies, the period of their
assessment and further actions
in the case of confirmation
of the lack of efficiency in
the implementation of the
mechanism.
“The patients do not know
whether they would be able to
continue individual therapy in
future. Physicians are not aware
whether they will be able to
prescribe drugs according to
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