EECA сountries unite to discuss matters of access to quality assured medicines and diagnostic technologoes

Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) Second Regional Consultation on Expanding Access to Affordable and Quality Assured Medicines and Diagnostic Technologies was held on 20-22 November 2018, Minsk, Belarus.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Health of Belarus supported by the UNAIDS, GFATM, WHO European Regional Bureau and Partnership “Stop Tuberculosis”. The event was attended by ministers of health, representatives of authorities in charge of formation and implementation of policy in the area of medicine supply and regulation of medicines market from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Representatives of international organizations, key partners, pharmaceutical companies, procurement agencies and lawyers acted as experts as well.

Dmytro Aleshko, partner at Legal Alliance Company, attended this so high-level event. Improvement of patient access to quality and cheap medicines was discussed. During the discussion it was noted that Ukraine has reached significant progress in matters of pharmaceutical market regulation. In particular, the WHO stated that Ukraine has recently demonstrated mature operation of the State Expert Centre.

“Such events let understand if our country is moving in the right direction in matters of providing the population with quality and accessible medicines. Support of Ukraine by international institutions and international technical projects was clearly noticeable. Ukrainian experience in organization of procurement through international organizations was of particular interest. The participants were interested in both strong and weak sides of this process”, Mr. Aleshko noted.