‘The Idea With Cheques For Medicines Looks Ridiculous’

It's not clear what medical officials are up to.

The Ministry of Health offered Belarusians to send photos of cheques for medicines purchased abroad if their price differs from prices on similar medicines in Belarus. The offer triggered an acute reaction of citizens and raised more questions than answers:

"People write that medicines for allergy treatment are 3.5 times cheaper in Moscow. Some medicines for cardiac disorders are 3 times cheaper in Lithuania and 4 times cheaper in Poland.

"Can I send checks for diapers? In Bialystok, they cost 20 rubles less."

"Send us cheques and we'll prepare a new list of products banned for import," Belarusians say.

Why did the Ministry of Health make such an offer? Is there any difference between Belarusian and imported medicines? Why does the state act as a regulator in the pharmaceutical market of the country?

Charter97.org addressed these questions to Yury Voronezhtseu, a Belarusian physicist, PhD in Technical Sciences and former secretary of the commission on investigation of causes and consequences of the Chernobyl accident in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

- When I was young, I had no idea that there would be such an item of expenses - "for medicines." And now, unfortunately, I am not so young and have several serious diseases. That is why I am well aware of the issue. If we talk about people who have to buy medicines, I would say that we have to choose between medicines and food.

Concerning salaries, pensions, average income, medicines are very expensive. I mean an effective one. The same antibiotics that cure. If we take an average pension, then the course of treatment makes up a quarter of this pension, if not a third. I believe that medicines are very in our country.

As for the Ministry of Health's initiative, they are hard to understand. After all, Belarus has tabletka.by. You go there, enter a settlement, enter the name of a medicine and get a list of pharmacies with this medicine. You have the phone number and its price. One can reserve a medicine and so on. Every other country has the same. It is unclear why an intern at the Ministry of Health cannot surf all the Polish, Lithuanian and Ukrainian sites in two weeks and find out prices for medicines people need.

If people send cheques, it will be complex to receive an average price. It will take two years. All this looks ridiculous.

- It would make sense to compare the quality of Belarusian and imported drugs. One can often hear complaints about our medicines. Do you agree with it?

- I have tried some drugs, in particular, those related to the treatment of oncological diseases. In 2010, I took a course of chemotherapy using Swiss and American medicines (I must admit, the course was free of charge), but this year I took the same course, but with Belarusian ones.

I would say that the side effects were more pronounced. This, of course, can be a subjective factor related to the peculiarities of my body. But I had firsthand knowledge.

It still depends on the medicine we are talking about. Belarus does not simply produce many items. It is especially true for the latest developments in the U.S., which is the leader in the number of new medicines.

And "Belarusian generics" (we do not have our products) are medicines that have no patent protection in the world. I don't want to say that they are outdated, it will be more diplomatic to say "approved in the world", but now they are produced here.

- Many foreign medicines have no analogues in our country. And sometimes there is no opportunity to bring imported medicines. Sometimes our country just misses a license for it. It is a vicious circle.

- Once I wanted to bring medicine to people I know well. When I contacted the customs and found out what problems it might entail. I just did not do it.

It is a real problem in Belarus. We used to have any medicine for hepatitis C. Imported ones cost much money. The course of treatment, which would help cure the disease of about 50%, cost from $8 to $12 thousand. The price depended on the virus type.

It took much time until the Belarusian generic appeared and the price fell to $700-800. I would also note that people who fell ill with this disease suffered a huge pressure on the part of their loved ones. A public association was created and it "attacked" the Ministry of Health with letters and appeals.

- Many Belarusian hospitals do not use foreign drugs. For example, when analyzing cancer markers. How would you comment on it?

- All of our clinics have clearly defined treatment protocols and a limited list of drugs to be used. Unfortunately, this cannot be neglected. Unless a medicine is certified, anything can be done. Another thing is that some particularly advanced doctors knowing that a certain medicine is widely used abroad for three to five years, recommend their patients to use this medicine. I know such examples which brought very good results.

- There was a scandal when Coldrex, Fervex and TeraFlu were not available in Belarusian pharmacies. Can the state act as a regulator in such issues?

- Everybody had these medicines in their first-aid kit, I'm not saying that they always had several sachets with them during business trips and trips.

I would call it nonsense. When approved, popular, effective medicines are replaced by something else. This is unwise, but it lobbies the commercial interests and aspirations of specific manufacturers. It is clear that Coldrex and TeraFlu, which include anti-inflammatory, antipyretic substances, can be replaced with domestic drugs. But everyone takes them.

- After the Chernobyl disaster, our country faced a real surge of oncology, thyroid problems and other diseases. Doesn't it look like hypocrisy when the Ministry of Health is engaged in populism instead of taking real steps to liberalize the pharmaceutical market?

- Our medicine is very poor, no matter what they say on TV - people from other countries come here for treatment; we have developed "medical tourism". If any foreigner arrives, he pushes a Belarusian aside. There have been such cases. It seems that we live great.

Look at the rating of our country in terms of per capita spending on medicine. If we take the European countries, their expenditures are several times more, and if we take the U.S. - 15-20 times more. On the one hand, I am very angry with the Ministry of Health officials, I have claims against them. Once I even corresponded with the Minister of Health. But on the other hand, "Don't shoot the pianist, he's doing his best."

We spend huge sums of money on holidays, sports events. On the other hand, we have sickbeds used for 50 years. People lie on them after surgeries. There is one toilet for several rooms. This is our medicine.

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