Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Mansion for 300 thousand dollars and a laboratory for “their own”: The State Service of Medicines was liquidated and a new agency created
The Government, by Resolution No. 739 of 4 June 2026 of the year, liquidated the State Service of Medicines and created the Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Agency, which should start functioning in full from 1 January 2027 of the year. In one ministry, the agency concentrates medicine registration, licensing, GMP, pharmacovigilance, medical devices, cosmetics, narcotics, precursors, and the blood system. The central apparatus of the new agency is 730 people against 128 in the State Service of Medicines. Funding includes the budget, sectoral fees, and paid services.
This was reported by Glavkom
Earlier the State Service of Medicines regularly found itself in scandals. Journalists, led by Oleksiy Solovyov, uncovered the pharmaceutical business of his father Stanislav — ‘Istok Plus’ and ‘Istok Plus LTD’. Partner there was named Mykhailo Zhirnov. At that time the service prohibited certain batches of foreign ‘Mildronate’. Solovyov denied charges of lobbying. In 2014 year he left, in 2020 Zelensky appointed him Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and in April 2024 he was dismissed.
The next head, Nataliya Hudz, ended her tenure similarly. In 2018 year the Government removed her and the first deputy after bans on vaccines against hepatitis B, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and other diseases. The Government stated that restrictions were imposed without sufficient grounds and with procedural violations. Hudz was dismissed in November.
But the main scandal fell on Roman Isaienko, who led the service since February 2019 year. The private laboratory ‘Dobrobut-LyklLab’, registered in 2023 with a charter capital of only 50 thousand hryvnias, quickly received a huge share of the State Service’s directions for quality control of medicines. The laboratory director admitted that at least half of its income came from such directions, and the head of the state laboratory estimated its share at about 60%. In 2024 year the company showed already 52,8 million hryvnias in revenue and almost 18 million hryvnias in net profit.
The connections were right inside the regulator. The laboratory chief, Ihor Lesyk, had previously worked at the State Service, and his wife Olena Verezhnykova continued working there and led the state quality control of medicines and blood. Isaienko’s deputy Volodymyr Korolenko even personally visited ‘Dobrobut-LyklLab’ in December 2023. Later, the conclusions of this private laboratory were used by the State Service in decisions to withdraw drug series from circulation.
At the same time, journalists found in Isaienko’s family a two-storey house in Novi Bezradychy valued at about $300 thousand hryvnias. They bought it in January 2022 and registered it to the parents of the official’s wife. In Isaienko’s declarations for 2022–2024 years the house was not listed. In November 2025 the NABU conducted searches in the State Service and in the office of its head. 24 December Isaienko was removed, 7 January 2026-was dismissed after a negative performance assessment. In February the NABU and SAP announced a suspicion of false declaration, and in May the proceedings were sent to court.
After Isaienko, his deputy Korolenko took over as head — the same man who visited ‘Dobrobut-LyklLab’. When the government decided to finally liquidate the State Service, Korolenko found himself already in the leadership of the liquidation commission.
Now, instead of the agency that ended with NABU searches, a criminal case against its head, and a private laboratory with half of its directions under scrutiny, a much more powerful regulator is being created. The Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Agency will handle drug registration, quality control, licensing, pharmacovigilance, and funds from the pharmaceutical market itself. The name and scope of powers are changing — the people who will head the new system have yet to be chosen.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Особняк за 300 тисяч доларів і лабораторія для «своїх»: Держлікслужбу ліквідували та створили новий орган". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
