The Cabinet Suspended State Medicines Service Head Roman Isaienko After Bihus.Info Investigation

The Cabinet of Ministers removed Romān Isayenko from his duties as head of the State Service of Medicines and Drug Control and initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. On the eve, investigators from NABU conducted searches in the State Service and, in particular, in Isayenko's office.

Back in February 2025 year, Bihus.Info discovered that the private laboratory “Dobrohut-Lilab” almost immediately after registration began receiving large orders from the State Service and has connections with its leadership and a SBU employee. Recently, Bihus.Info editors obtained testimony from the laboratory's investor and recordings of conversations that further corroborate officials' involvement in this scheme.

The case concerns “Dobrohut-Lilab,” registered in the spring 2023 year. Serviceman, previously a owner of a large agricultural business, and also a fellow countryman of the State Service head Romān Isayenko, Viktor Hrynchuk, said that at the beginning of 2023 year he received an offer from Isayenko to create a laboratory that would test medicines. The idea interested him, so discussions began:

“At the next meeting, I don’t know when it happened, he [Romān Isayenko] says: ‘I have a ready business plan.’ There was one more man with us. I ask who that is. He says: ‘Well, it’s Valentyn, he’s connected, he will handle all this.’ I say, if you know the person – let him handle it. As it turned out, that is Valentyn Ovramets.”

Valentyn Ovramets is a SBU officer. According to Hry nchuk, the three of them participated in discussions about the future laboratory’s activities. At one of the meetings they identified nominal owners of “Dobrohut-Lilab.”

“These 50% we registered under, let’s say, a relative, that’s how we’ll call her.”

Another co-owner of the laboratory became Dmytro Ustep. In previous investigations, journalists found out that he is a builder who, by the way, knows nothing about laboratory testing of medicines. Viktor Hry nchuk, as well as recordings, confirm that Ustep is a foreman who carried out work on properties owned by Valentyn Ovramets’s relative. He was also installed as the laboratory’s director.

In the earlier part of the investigation, journalists found that the laboratory’s premises were transferred to the mother-in-law of an SBU employee shortly before its registration. The obtained recordings indicate that she could also have been used to launder money.

Additionally, according to Hry nchuk, money was laundered in other ways. In particular, Ovramets invited 10% of turnover allegedly “for the service of not hindering operations.” The serviceman also says that the laboratory’s account was subjected to a hacker attack, after which more than 2 million hryvnias disappeared. Money was also laundered through individual entrepreneurs and in cash.

“Ovramets and Roma say: ‘There are FOPs. At 6%, this was stated, we’ll withdraw and settle. We’ll cash out and move money.’

To calculate how much money was moved in such ways is difficult, however in February 2025 journalists found expensive assets in Romān Isayenko’s and Valentyn Ovramets’s families, the origins of which officials could not explain.

It is worth noting that in August 2025 year Dmytro Ustep became the owner of another, new laboratory with a similar name “Likilab.” It was registered at the same address as the previous one, but among the owners only Ustep. Less than three months after registration, “Likilab” also received a certificate of accreditation from the State Service of Medicines and Drug Control. The foreman could not explain why a second laboratory was needed.