Dpty health minister says does not expect drug shortage after warehouse hit
No shortage of medicines in Ukraine due to the destruction by the aggressor of the warehouse of one of the two largest pharmaceutical distributors - JV Optima-Pharm- is expected, Deputy Minister of Health Edem Adamanov has said.
"A shortage of medicines in Ukraine is not expected," he said on the air of a telethon on Tuesday.
According to Adamanov, Optima-Pharm is currently launching a reserve buffer warehouse, which will take over the supply volumes that were provided by the destroyed facilities.
"Other distributors are also reconfiguring their routes to guarantee uniform supplies across the country. The Ministry of Health, the State Medical Service, manufacturers, suppliers and pharmacy chains are constantly coordinating to promptly respond to requests and meet the need for medicines where it arises," he said.
Adamanov noted that the priority for supply is vital drugs: antibiotics, insulin, and cancer drugs.
As reported, the Russian attack on Kyiv on October 25 destroyed the warehouse and office of Ukraine's second largest pharmaceutical distributor, Optima-Pharm. Pharmaceutical products worth about $100 million were destroyed in the warehouse. Earlier, on August 28, the Russians had already shelled the pharmaceutical warehouse of the Optima-Pharm joint venture as a result of a missile attack on Kyiv.
The day before, on October 24, the AMCU decided that it would not suspend its decision to impose a fine on two large pharmaceutical distributors - BaDM LLC and Optima-Pharm LLC, which appealed the committee's decision in court. The Committee fined BaDM and Optima-Pharm, LTD for a total amount of over UAH 4.8 billion (UAH 2.374 billion for BaDM and UAH 2.432 billion for Optima-Pharm, LTD).
For its part, the pharmaceutical company Farmak (JSC Farmak, Kyiv) expressed sympathy for the team of the pharmaceutical distributor JV Optima-Pharm and proposed to allow distributors to use warehouses that do not have GDP (Good Distribution Practice) certification for a certain period of time, by analogy with what was introduced at the beginning of a full-scale war for receiving humanitarian aid in the form of medicines, and at the same time to provide for actual compliance with the storage conditions of pharmaceutical products.
In addition, Farmak reported that the destroyed warehouse of Optima-Pharm, according to a preliminary estimate, contained up to 15% of the company's entire stock of goods in the warehouses of this distributor.
Currently, Optima-Pharm has not commented on the situation with the destruction of the warehouse
Optima-Pharm is the second largest pharmaceutical distributor after BaDM. It has been operating on the Ukrainian market for 31 years. The owner of the company is Andriy Hubsky, he is not publicly active. According to Forbes Ukraine, his business with a 33% share and 12 pharmacy warehouses with a total area of 70,000 sq m remains one of the largest in the country's pharmaceutical market.