Anyone who has lived in other countries knows that Ukraine is a country of pharmacies.

In the EU, it is impossible to buy even Nimesil without a prescription when you have a toothache.

But this is natural for a poor country that does not have a developed insurance medicine.

The services of which, by the way, are much more expensive than ours.

Until March 1, so-called “marketing agreements” between pharmacies and manufacturers operated in Ukraine.

This was a kind of agency fee to pharmacies for their services in presenting goods and consulting customers. And a resource for discounts and marketing campaigns, of course.

Pharmacies in Ukraine are developing according to the principles of retail trade, and not as warehouses of prescription drugs.

But any regulatory intervention by officials in our country turns into problems for consumers.

The government decided to ban marketing agreements, allegedly because they lead to .... an increase in the price of drugs, which looks quite absurd. Now I will explain why.

Marketing contracts were canceled, but prices were reduced for only 100 drugs that were determined by manufacturers.

These are mainly ascorbic acid and other secondary drugs.

Manufacturers' prices for the remaining drugs did not change and they received additional profits due to the suspension of payments to pharmacies under marketing contracts.

At the same time, pharmacies, having lost a significant part of their income, began to increase their trade margins and drug prices continued to grow.

Thus, instead of cheaper prices, consumers received higher prices, and manufacturers received superprofits. The price of the issue is UAH 500 million per month.

It is precisely such funds that manufacturers added to their profits as a result of the cancellation of marketing contracts, and pharmacies were forced to compensate for these funds at the expense of the trade margin.

That is, the consumer paid for everything.

And now the question. Are there really such short-sighted officials in the Ministry of Health who do not understand these consequences?

I think not.

So, isn't this about blatant lobbying by "big pharma," or rather, several manufacturers?

Is there a trace of corruption here?

It is worth finding answers to all these questions, otherwise consumers will continue to overpay for medicines, because they are the most necessary.