Need for medicines for patients with multiple sclerosis is only 20% covered – patients

18:22, 28.05.2025 1 min read

The need for medicines for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is only 20% covered by the budget, and it is necessary to increase funding for their purchase, Anton Kulahin, co-founder of the Oleksiy Sereda 99 Problems NGO, which unites such patients, told Interfax-Ukraine.

According to him, as of April 30, 2025, some 33,785 patients with multiple sclerosis were registered in Ukraine's electronic health system, including 224 children.

At the same time, due to the lack of a patient route, the need for medicines was submitted only for 10,028 patients, and financed approximately for 6,718 through quota financing of all purchases.

"Because of this, it is critical that the Verkhovna Rada supports bill 13,308 on increasing financing for medicine purchases by UAH 8.6 billion," he said.

On May 30, the world commemorates World Multiple Sclerosis Day, the goal of which is to increase public awareness and draw attention to the needs of people with this diagnosis. Multiple sclerosis is an incurable progressive autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, the progression of which is slowed down only by constant therapy.