​Lawyers of Law Alliance Company Held a Seminar on Reform of Medicinal Products Pricing

On March 27th, 2017 the seminar “The reform of Medicinal Products Pricing. Saga. Episode 4: A New Hope” organized by Legal Alliance Company was held. The event was attended by more than 30 representatives of pharmaceutical companies.

The urgency of the issues considered by the leading experts of the regulatory practice of Legal Alliance Company at the seminar was dictated by the adoption on March 16th, 2017 of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Ensuring Affordability of Medicinal Products” No. 152, which was designed to relieve tension in the pharmaceutical market in terms of price regulation for certain drugs for treatment of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes of type II and bronchial asthma, as well as regulate the mechanism of reimbursement of the cost of such drugs for the population.

Speakers: Dmytro Aleshko, partner of Legal Alliance Company, Natalia Lavrenova, counsel of Legal Alliance Company, and Natalia Spivak, associate of Legal Alliance Company, began the event with a brief introduction to the history of the implementation of the medicinal products pricing reform. The second block of the event was devoted directly to the latest relevant changes. The speakers talked about the scope of state price regulation for 21 INPN, on the establishment of maximum levels of ex-factory prices based on reference pricing, the declaration of ex-factory prices, limitation on charging mark-ups on drugs, introduction of medicinal products reimbursement scheme, participation in this state project, as well as of the amount of and algorithm for reimbursing the drugs.

Until mid-April, the Ministry of Health must process all received applications for the participation of certain drugs in the reimbursement program. At this time, local administrations will enter into appropriate contracts with pharmacies.

At the end of the event, the speakers announced their forecast of further events, and also gave recommendations to the representatives of the pharmaceutical market, adherence to which will allow for more effective adaptation to the rules of the game changed since April 1st, 2017.

“The Cabinet of Ministers adopted a resolution which changed the approach to the organization of the medicinal products reimbursement scheme. Now the participation of the pharmaceutical market subjects in the program is voluntary. Together with the improvement of price regulation, this led to the fact that more than 100 applications were submitted to the Ministry of Health for the participation of drugs in the program. In a few weeks patients will be able to enjoy this initiative of the state and get a number of drugs for free or for partial payment”, commented Dmytro Aleshko.