The supplies of vaccines procured through international organizations, have been unlocked, Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko said in the Verkhovna Rada on 16 June.
"All procurements for vaccines have been transferred to tenders with the participation of international organizations. This is the right decision, which suspended the Ministry of Health from decision-making [in this sphere]. This process is new for Ukraine, so we had some delays. To date, the delivery of vaccines and other medicinal products conducted through international procurements, was unlocked, and we move on, however slowly. We have a timetable of supplies, and have already received drugs worth about one billion hryvnia from of the two billion that we have paid for. 39% of the supplies have been delivered to the regions," the vice premier said.
When a medication is needed urgently, we employ "the manual mode," Rozenko said. "Sometimes the desired vaccines are delivered through humanitarian assistance." He promissed to significantly rectify the situation within the next few months.
Earlier, after a poorly thought-out transition to the international procurement of medicines, Ukraine felt shortage of a number of life-saving vaccines. International organizations have discovered that the vaccine which they procure are by and large not certified in Ukraine, while the certification process is fairly long.
On 16 June, President Petro Poroshenko signed the law that states that medicines registered in the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Canada and EU countries must be certified in Ukraine within seven days.