UPC 2018: a large scale event for the pharmaceutical industry took place in Kyiv
On June 21-22 a conference of the year for the pharmaceutical industry - Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Congress 2018 - organized by Legal Alliance Company and ABSC took place. This year the event, which was devoted to the current issues of state and development perspectives of the industry, united top managers of national and foreign pharmaceutical companies, leading experts and opinion leaders in healthcare sector, representatives of state authorities, specialized associations, media and over 150 participants.
During the first day of the congress interactive discussion panels were held at which issues of medical reform state and current results of its implementation were considered, namely what is changing in the healthcare sector this year, reform launch from July 1, 2018 and challenges associated with that, perspectives of medical sector development in 2019-2020 and how it will influence pharmaceutical companies. During the discussion, in particular, it was emphasized that the reform process is looming larger and so far over 9 million Ukrainians have chosen their doctors, and private clinics are actively getting engaged in the process. However, a lot of issues which require more attention and elaboration still remain, such as wider explanatory work with the population, streamlining implementation mechanism for the programs of guaranteed set of medicines provision and reducing financial burden on the population, renovation of trust in doctors and combatting corruption by technologization of processes. The issue of the role of the National Health Service and how it will further develop was discussed with its new head – Oleh Petrenko, whose speech caused a high interest of the audience.
Besides, considerable attention was paid to procurement of medicines from the National List upon first 5 months of operation and their provision to the population for budget funds, how the National List will look like at the beginning of 2019 and what new approaches to consideration of applications and inclusion of the medicines to the List will be used. Main challenges in the competition sector and practice of dispute settlement with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and influence of the completed investigations on the conditions of collaboration with pharmacy chains were highlighted in the panel with the participation of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and business representatives. Panel participants – directors of international pharmaceutical companies Alvogen, Alkaloid and Santen shared experience of medicines promotion through different forms of interaction with medical and pharmaceutical professionals and about their effectiveness and safety from the compliance standpoint. The present market leaders expressed their opinions on the current issues important for successful activities of pharmaceutical companies in Ukraine.
The panel discussions were attended by: Iryna Sysoenko, People’s Deputy, Head of the Subcommittee on Control of Medical Reform Implementation of the Verkhovna Rada Healthcare Committee; Roman Ilyk, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine; Pavlo Kovtoniuk, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine; Vitalii Koblosh, Director of the Department for Humanitarian and Social Policy of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine; Natalia Shymko, Deputy Director of the Public Procurement Department of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine; Mykhailo Radutskyi, President of Borys Clinic; Taras Liaskovskyi, Head of the Directorate for Pharmaceutical Activities and Pharmaceutical Products Quality of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine; Pavlo Harchyk, President of the Medical Device Market Operators (AMOMD); Oleksandra Oleshchuk, Head of the Expert Committee for Selection and Use of Essential Medicines; Yulia Sydorova, Director of Alvogen; Serhii Ishchenko, Director of Proxima Research; Heorhii Victorov, Director-General of Abbott Laboratories GmbH Ukraine; Oleksandr Sukhodolskyi, BADM; Ninel Kadurova, Deputy Director of SAFEMed project; Artem Matveev, Sales and Marketing Director at Alkaloid; Andrii Stohnii, Regional Director at Santen; Hulia Pohotova, Director at Delta Medical; Yurii Chertkov, Director at Medical Marketing Agency. The event was moderated by Maryna Buchma, Director for Relation with State Authorities at Teva Ukraine; Kshyshtof Sedletski, Senior Partner at ABSC; Natalia Serhiienko, Executive Director of the Healthcare Committee of the European Business Association and partners at Legal Alliance Company Dmytro Aleshko, Oleksii Bezhevets and Andrii Gorbatenko.
The second day of the congress was devoted to workshops: Algorithm of Competitive Risks Assessment, Practical Aspects of Procurement, Digital Promotion of Medicines, Intellectual Property and Competition Wars, New Law – New Limited Liability Companies, conducted by experts who have niche expertise in key areas of activity in the pharmaceutical sector.
“Healthcare System in Ukraine and pharmaceutical regulation are being actively reformed. Obviously, in such conditions a person who today watches systemic changes will be successful tomorrow. The congress gathered representatives of manufacturers, distributors and pharmacy chains. The participants got a unique opportunity to communicate with state authority representatives who are immediately engaged in the reform process, and the officials heard about market and regulation problems. I think that no participant regretted taking part in the congress”, commented Dmytro Aleshko, partner at Legal Alliance Company.
