Cabinet intends to distribute reference prices for number of drugs

The Cabinet of Ministers intends to expand the list of pharmacies, where drugs for reference prices will be sold, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said, opening the government’s meeting on Wednesday, ForUm correspondent reports.

According to him, Ukraine has developed a project on referent prices for drugs for hypertensive patients. "The reference prices are working. But the development of this project is constrained by the fact that the list of pharmacies that use such prices is determined by local authorities, and that is why there are few of them. I think it's time to distribute this project among all pharmacies and to begin the next stage of the introduction of reference prices for other groups of drugs," Azarov said.

The Prime Minister instructed the Health Ministry to develop proposals within two weeks for the development of the program on reference prices.

He also instructed deputy Prime Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko to analyze comprehensively the issues on pharmaceutical market development, the issues of the public and market participants and to develop proposals for their complete solution.