OREANDA-NEWS. March 22, 2012. Assure citizen with affordable and quality health care is the main objective of health reform as a part of the presidential program of economic reforms. It is known that among the priorities of the first phase of the reform - help and support of quality services for the most vulnerable people.

In particular, in some regions of Ukraine a number of pilot projects to establish perinatal centers that provide timely assistance to mothers and newborns have already implemented. The system of modern primary health care, focused primarily on the necessary medical services to the elderly, low income families is being created. A new step in this direction is the provision of population with affordable drugs.

During the session of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on March 7 President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych instructed the Government to implement in Ukraine European experience of state market regulation of prices for medicines.

For working out this mechanism was established a working group composed of the following representatives of relevant ministries, agencies and NGOs. It has already held three meetings of the working group. First of all, the working group has studied the international experience of price regulation on medicines.

Prices of medicines are subject of the control by all countries of Europe. In 24 from 27 EU countries (89%) price controls on medicines is at the level of manufacturer, in 14 countries (52%) the prices for medicines are regulated, which cost is recoverable under the current system of health insurance or social security (such as France, Hungary Slovakia); only prescription drugs are subject to price regulation in 3 countries.

Retail margin are regulated in all countries. They are calculated by regressive or linear pattern. In most countries there VAT on drugs. Some countries share the VAT rates for certain categories of drugs to cure low or even zero.

In most European countries the main instrument of pricing is analyze of external and internal so-called reference price - that market prices for medicine outside the country and its territory.

Establishing comparative (reference) prices of drugs - a tool for identifying the objective of market prices due to the presence on the European market a large number of manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, similar drugs, and disability (or appropriate expenditure savings) or state insurance budgets financing of drugs. Most countries apply the practice of comparative analysis of foreign and domestic prices for similar drugs.

As studies have shown, in Poland and Bulgaria after the introduction of reference pricing and reimbursement of cost of medicines, for example, a group of drugs for the treatment of hypertension significantly decreased. For example, after the introduction of referential prices in Germany, prices for drugs of referential group for 13 years (1989-2002) on average decreased by 32%.

On March 20, it was held a session chaired by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, during which considered the introduction of reference pricing for medicines in Ukraine. For Ukraine, it is reasonable and lawfully to use comparative tools (referential) prices.

In Ukraine it has been initiated of the introduction of comparative methods (referential) pricing, as approaches relating to the reasonable prices for drugs by such methods known and used in many European countries.

As a first step in this direction asked to identify a limited list of drugs most often used to treat hypertension and implement a pilot project regulation of prices for these drugs, because cardiovascular disease - the most popular among the Ukrainian people. Today, in Ukraine 13 million of our compatriots suffering from hypertension every year from this cruel disease die half a million Ukrainian people.

Next step – introduction of referential pricing of insulin.

Within these pilot projects it is also planed to introduce the mechanism of the reimbursement - reimbursing the cost of drugs purchased by the patient.

After receiving the results of monitoring the effectiveness of pilot projects, this practice will be disseminated to other groups of drugs of critical social importance.