Gosleksluzhba rescheduled change of licensing procedure for imported medications The State Service of Ukraine for Medical Drugs

(Gosleksluzhba) has agreed to re schedule changes to licensing procedures for imported medications. Gosleksluzhby head Olexiy Soloviev made the decision was made on Sept. 11 follow ing a public discussion of licensing changes. At the request of importers, Ukraine ha rescheduled delegating inspection of imp orted drugs to licensed importers, as stipulated in the draft resolution amendin g licensing regulations. Gosleksluzhba has also agreed to grant a delay for concluding a contract between the licensee, the owner of registration certificate, and the manufacturer. Experts say current efforts with the ultimate goal of introducing the European m odel of medication import licensing in Ukraine will continue. Ukraine's pharmaceutical market continues to grow steadily both in monetary and in-kind terms. During the first six months of 2013, retail sales of medications in Ukraine amounted to 14.6 billion UAH forover 625 million packs, which is up 15 .7% in value and 3.8% in-kind, year-on-year. Some 65.4% of the total sales were domestic production medications and 34.6% were foreign-made items. Ukrainian con sumers paid 68.6% in monetary terms for foreign-made drugs, and only 31.4% for d omestically produced ones. Government analysts note that import licensing is just the first step of a compr ehensive program to support domestic producers. The Cabinet plans to further dec rease the amount of drugs imported to Ukraine. According to experts, medication import licensing procedures have been in effect in the European Union for almost 12 years.Ukraine plans to implement the Polish licensing model. The EU today has a clear licensing definition for all medication production and marketing stages. Medication manufacturing, imports and wholesale trade are lice nsed separately.The narrow licensing conditions for each category help ensure tha t patients only get high quality medications. Regulating economic relations of all medication turnover phases will help make U kraine's market more transparent, say analysts.Ideally, the supply chain should e ventually come down to five links: Manufacturer, importer, distributor, pharmacy and patient. Experts say the changes in the licensing procedure for imported medications were approved by the Ministry of Health on May 30, 2013 and will come into effect on December 1, 2013. Stem:Retail sales of medications amounted to 14.6 billion UAH in the first six mo nths of 2013