Medicines Procurement

For the fourth consecutive year, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine is using innovative tools to reduce corruption in the public procurement field and cooperating with specialized international organizations, including the United Nations, that have global experience in procurement of medicines and healthcare products. This approach to procurement should significantly reduce corruption risks, facilitate transparent procurement and the rational use of budget funds, ensuring quality and timely treatment for patients with serious diseases in Ukraine. According to the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, cooperation with the specialized international organizations in public medicine procurement resulted in 39% budget funds savings.

The effective cooperation with international organizations in medicine procurement helped the Ukrainian government significantly enhance competition and minimize corruption risks: for instance, UNICEF purchases 100% of vaccines and antiretroviral medicines directly from manufactures. The UNDP has analyzed the procurement it conducted for the 2016 budget funds, and according to the results, the share of medicines bought directly from manufacturers comprised more than 70%, in contrast to 2014 – before  the international procurement of medicines was introduced. For example, in 2014 as many as 10 companies became winners of the MoH tenders for the adult oncology program, only two of these companies being manufacturers, and eight – distributors. In addition, such experience of cooperation with specialized organizations opened doors for Ukrainian manufacturers to participate in international tenders. Thus, in 2017 one Ukrainian company won the UNDP tender for anti-TB medicines procurement in Moldova.

The Anti-Corruption Action Centre conducted the monitoring of medicine procurement for oncology programs through specialized international organizations and through the ProZorro e-procurement system, and the results showed a 300% price difference compared with the regional procurement in Ukraine for medicines of the same manufacturer.

Such optimization of procurement activities results in significant savings to budget funds that can be used to procure additional medicines and healthcare products in order to serve the needs of more patients.

Detailed information about medicines procurement is available in Ukrainian: http://moz.gov.ua/zakupivli-likiv