The "Affordable Medicines" program has been expanded to include 260 new drugs
The "Affordable Medicines" state program has been expanded to include an additional 260 brand-name medications. The new drugs are intended for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and are now available to patients under the reimbursement program.
Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko announced this on Facebook.
“The largest expansion of ‘Affordable Medicines’ to date: we’ve added another 260 brand-name drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases,” the minister noted.
According to him, 173 of these are dispensed free of charge, while another 87 require a partial copayment. Patients can now obtain electronic prescriptions for the new medications.
As the head of the Ministry of Health noted, cardiovascular diseases account for 68% of all deaths in Ukraine. A significant portion of these cases can be prevented through early risk detection, prevention, and regular treatment.
“In response to this challenge, we are implementing a set of measures that form a unified ‘Healthy Heart’ approach: the ‘Health Screening 40+’ program, aimed at prevention and early risk detection; increased reimbursement rates for cardiac surgery; free elective and emergency coronary stenting; and expanded access to essential medications. “Following this update, the ‘Affordable Medicines’ program now covers the full spectrum of evidence-based outpatient treatment for cardiovascular diseases in accordance with the recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology,” Lyashko emphasized.
As part of this expansion, a support mechanism for medications manufactured in Ukraine was implemented for the first time. Under this mechanism, 67 single-ingredient and 35 combination medications produced in Ukraine were included in the program.
In total, the “Affordable Medicines” program covers 1,038 items, which are dispensed by 17,470 pharmacies nationwide. Since the program’s launch, 6.43 million Ukrainians have benefited from it, the health minister reported. According to him, the full list of medications is available via the link.
Lyashko added that the nearest pharmacy can be found via the National Health Service of Ukraine’s (NSZU) dashboard, “Electronic Map of Locations Dispensing Medications via E-Prescription.”
As a reminder, a new method for finding cheaper medications using a QR code has been launched in Ukraine.
