International organisations will no longer procure medicines for Ukraine – Ministry of Health

What happened? International organisations will no longer procure medicines and medical devices for Ukraine. From now on, these functions will be transferred to the Medical Procurement of Ukraine state-owned enterprise. 

Source. This is stated on the website of Medical Procurement.

Details. At the same time, Ukraine is still waiting for the supply of vaccines, medical products for transplantation, treatment of epidermolysis bullosa purchased by international procurers earlier. 

"Since 2015, as part of the healthcare system reform, centralised procurement of medical products has been transferred to international procurement organisations. This was a temporary solution until Ukraine creates a national agency capable of fighting the widespread corruption that prevailed in public healthcare procurement," says Edem Adamanov, acting Director General of the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine. 

Earlier, in 2014, Ukraine failed to procure vital medicines. That is why it had to turn to international organisations UNICEF, UNDP and Crown Agents. As a side note, international organisations are used to procure medicines in the UK and some US states.

In 2018, the state-owned enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine was established, which made its first procurement in two years. According to Mr. Adamanov, it has managed to save more than 5 billion UAH during this time. 

It is worth noting that medical products to meet public health needs will be procured by international partners, including antiretroviral therapy, substitution maintenance therapy, medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis, and test systems for the diagnosis of HIV and tuberculosis. 

In April 2022, the Verkhovna Rada extended the procurement of medicines for Ukraine by international organisations for one year. The provision is valid until April 30, 2023.