The national list of essential medicines could be expanded after the launch of the e-register of patients and calculation of the full need in medicines procured using budget funds.

The Health Ministry told Interfax-Ukraine that at present, the ministry is working with the regions on the introduction of the approved methods for calculating the need in medicines that have been placed to the list.

"This is hard to do, taking into account the absence of a common electronic register of all Ukrainian patients. On August 23, at the initiative of the Health Ministry, the Cabinet of Ministers postponed until January 1, 2018 the requirement to purchase medicines placed to the updated national list and issue them on the preferential terms or free of charge. When the Health Ministry receives a real figure for the cost of the required volume of medicines, we can talk about the expansion of the national list," the ministry said.

The ministry said that the national list will be gradually filled with medicines before early 2019. Then it will be reviewed annually, taking into account the planned annual increase in the health budget, and also taking into account the changing situation of increasing or decreasing certain types of medicines.

In addition, the expert committee on the creation of the national list will recommend adding new medicines to the document, the effectiveness of which will be proved.