Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The chair of the board of the European Pharmaceutical Association, Oleksandr Komarida, assured that there is no general shortage of medicines in Ukraine as of mid-September, despite a series of attacks on pharmaceutical warehouses. Medicine shortages could arise from disruption to logistics, so pharmacy chains began building additional stocks for this contingency. According to the expert, only temporary shortages of certain drugs are possible due to rerouting supply chains. At the same time, the Pharmaceutical Professional Association of Ukraine is already recording increased demand for medicines for chronic patients and the emergence of shortages of certain items. In some regions, supplies of medicines remain for only two to three weeks.
ZAXID.NET reported on the situation in pharmacies with comments from Oleksandr Komarida and the Pharmaceutical Professional Association of Ukraine. According to the chair of the association, the sector adapted to working in wartime conditions as far back as 2022, so despite regular attacks, no panic-related supply failures are expected.
"Although the enemy systematically attacks pharmaceutical warehouses and this is already at least the fourth attack in a month, the sector learned to work in wartime conditions back in 2022. There may be some interruptions with individual items due to the restructuring of logistics routes, but there should be no global shortage of medicines in Ukraine," explained the chair of the board of the European Pharmaceutical Association, Oleksandr Komarida.
As the association noted, pharmacies are also reporting shortages — that is, the temporary absence of certain drugs from suppliers — including medicines from the "Affordable Medicines" program. In addition, there are delivery delays, and some drugs have supplies remaining for only two to three weeks. Some suppliers cannot yet name exact timelines for full restoration of deliveries. APAU warned that the consequences of the destruction of pharmaceutical warehouses may emerge gradually, as distributors and pharmacies exhaust existing stocks.
Pharmacist Anastasiia Nabi from a Lviv pharmacy told ZAXID.NET that as recently as last week, from 7 to 13 September, most drugs were available, but as of 15 September some items have become more difficult to order.
"Last week I said that everything was available and what shortage could we be talking about. Now, unfortunately, I can’t say that anymore. Some items are absent, but the situation is not critical. Supplier representatives say that deliveries should be restored in about two weeks," pharmacist Anastasiia Nabi said.
She said the most problems with availability of certain drugs are observed in Kyiv, where her pharmacy most often sends orders via Nova Poshta. The most frequently ordered items are Euthyrox and baby formula, which creates additional strain on pharmacies’ stocks in other regions. The pharmacist advises people with chronic illnesses who buy medicines from a specific manufacturer to keep one extra package for about a month.
"You can also replenish a basic home first-aid kit, but not so much because of the threat of shortage as because of possible price increases," added pharmacist Anastasiia Nabi.
In her observations, lately significantly more goods are coming from warehouses to pharmacies than usual — distributors are trying to disperse stocks to avoid simultaneous destruction of a large number of medicines in the event of new attacks. In her view, more serious consequences would come not from the destruction of stocks but from damage to production itself: warehouse inventories can be redistributed quickly, whereas restoring a damaged factory requires much more time and money.
Komarida confirmed that the fastest-to-disappear items from shelves may be medicines that people take regularly — drugs for cardiovascular diseases and hormone therapy products. According to him, this can be caused not only by the destruction of stocks but also by excessive panic buying.
"If panic sets in among the population, the first drugs to be swept from shelves will be those for chronic diseases, cardiovascular system drugs, and hormone therapy. But this will be linked to people buying them in much larger quantities than they actually need," Oleksandr Komarida noted.
According to him, there is indeed less Euthyrox and L-Tyroxine in some pharmacies, but it is too early to speak of a shortage — pharmacy chain representatives assured the association that the drugs are in warehouses and it takes one to two days to redistribute them between pharmacies. In addition, levothyroxine is produced not only by foreign but also by Ukrainian companies.
Euthyrox and L-Tyroxine are brand names of drugs with the same active ingredient — levothyroxine sodium;
they are prescribed to people with hypothyroidism, when the thyroid gland produces insufficient hormones;
such drugs are usually taken daily and often lifelong.
Komarida advises that only people who take doctor-prescribed medicines continuously for chronic conditions should form a stock of up to three months. He does not recommend buying other medicines in advance or hoarding more than needed for treatment — the "Affordable Medicines" program already allows receiving medicines for three months at once, and the pharmaceutical market takes this possibility into account when planning stocks.
"You should buy only the medicines a person takes for a chronic condition, and not buy everything indiscriminately. The pharmaceutical business has adapted to the possibility that a patient can come to a pharmacy and receive a three-month supply under the 'Affordable Medicines' program," Oleksandr Komarida explained.
The state has formed reserve stocks of rare drugs
Ukraine is forming a state reserve of rare and expensive drugs needed to save lives. Director of the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health, Edem Adamanov, reported that for security reasons medicines are stored in small batches in various locations, the whereabouts of which are not disclosed.
At the end of August the government also simplified storage rules for medicines during martial law: pharmaceutical companies were allowed to use additional premises and the warehouses of other licensed companies. This allows dispersing drugs across several locations and reduces the risk of simultaneous loss of large stocks as a result of Russian attacks. In addition, according to Adamanov, large international manufacturers have medicine stocks in European warehouses, which will allow quick replenishment of supplies in Ukraine if needed. At the same time, the state is not creating centralized stocks of ordinary over-the-counter, antiviral, and pain-relief medicines, because such goods can be delivered or produced relatively quickly.
The enemy has been attacking pharmaceutical logistics for several months in a row
The series of attacks on pharmaceutical logistics began back in August, when Russians struck the WHO humanitarian warehouse in Dnipro several times, where medical supplies for frontline hospitals were stored. In September, commercial pharmaceutical infrastructure came under attack: on 3 September in the Kyiv region the warehouses of Biocon, Teva, and the WHO were damaged, while the largest destruction was suffered by the Biocon complex covering about 45 thousand m², which stored mostly imported drugs. At that time the enemy also destroyed the warehouse of the Apteka Dobroho Dnia chain.
On 8 September the Russians struck again the previously destroyed Optima-Pharm warehouse in Kyiv, but the premises were already empty, so no new losses of medicines were recorded. On 12–13 September the Universal Logistic complex in the Boryspil district was damaged, and on 14 September the Russians attacked the warehouse of the pharmaceutical distributor BaDM in Odesa. The company has not yet disclosed the exact volumes of destroyed drugs, but they are clearly significant.
Earlier, Informator reported that there is currently no shortage of medicines in Ukraine, as stated by the director of the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health, Edem Adamanov — according to him, pharmacy chains and distributors rebuilt logistics, and manufacturers keep reserves in Europe. We also wrote that the Russians once again destroyed a large warehouse with medicines, this time in Dnipro, where the Optima-Pharm pharmaceutical warehouse that served the southern regions of the country was completely destroyed. In addition, Informator wrote that the Russians struck the Darnytsia pharmaceutical company on the night of 28 June, when a missile strike on Kyiv damaged the production capacities of one of the country’s largest drug manufacturers, although the company assured it would continue to fulfill obligations to supply citizens with medicines.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Дефіцит ліків в Україні через удари по фармскладах - що кажуть фахівці". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
