"It would be banned to sell medicines in pharmacies at the prices higher than the upper price, taking into account upper markups (wholesale and retail) and VAT, from February 1," the ministry said on its website.
The ministry said that VAT on medicines and medical products will fall to 2-5%, not disclosing what legal documents will regulate the reduction of VAT.
According to the report, under an order of the Ukrainian prime minister jointly with the Economic Development and Trade Ministry the Health Ministry has drawn up rules how to calculate the upper prices of medicines for 21 international nonproprietary names (INN).
The government sets the upper wholesale markup for medicines at 5%, taking into account all taxes and duties, and the upper retail markup at 15%, taking into account all taxes and duties.
Government regulation of medicine prices will touch three directions: cardiovascular diseases (65% of total death rate in Ukraine), type 2 diabetes (over 1 million of Ukrainians) and asthma (210,000 patients of working age).
The reference price of these medicines is set depending on the prices of similar medicines (INN) in five neighbor countries – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Latvia.
The upper wholesale price is determined by the Health Ministry via finding the smallest reference price of INN in reference countries, using information from official sources of authorized agencies of reference countries.
