Analysis of access to medicines for the population by the state budget in Ukraine

Abstract

The price of medicines is an important factor in ensuring accessibility for the population in the healthcare. Ukraine actively implements pricing policies in the healthcare in accordance with the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO recommendations aim to achieve two important objectives. First, they seek to ensure the availability of effective medicines for the population so that every patient has the opportunity to receive necessary treatment. Second, it is to create conditions for pharmaceutical companies to have incentives to continue their innovative activities in the field of medicine.
 The purpose of the research is to analyze and evaluate pricing policies that ensure the accessibility of medicines for the Ukrainian population through state budget funding and their compliance with WHO recommendations.
 It has been established that in Ukraine, there are several directions aimed at ensuring the population's accessibility to medicines through state budget funding: the purchase of medicines within the National Essential Medicine List, the «Affordable Medicines» program, centralized procurement of medicines and the purchase of innovative medicines through Managed Entry Agreements. Pricing for medicines under various programs is carried out using different approaches.
 An analysis of the legislative environment regulating medicine pricing in Ukraine in accordance with WHO-recommended pricing policies has revealed that several pricing policies are functioning at a satisfactory level. These include external and internal reference pricing, mark-up regulation, cost-based pricing, as well as tax exemptions or reductions for medicines. However, there are policies that require further development and improvement. These include promoting price transparency, conducting tenders and negotiations, consolidating procurement, promoting the use of generics and biosimilars with guaranteed quality, as well as introducing cost-plus pricing to determine medicine prices.
 Thus, standardization of the lists of medicines and pricing approaches is one of the most important tasks on the path to European integration. Monitoring market prices with control over their compliance is a necessary step to improve the population's access to effective medicines.