There will be no shortages or hikes of prices of imported medicines due to the introduction of the licensing of medicine imports, according to Regions Party MP Tetiana Bakhteyeva, the chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada's health care committee.

She said the licensing of medicine imports was in line with European standards regulated by Article 40 of Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council dated November 6, 2001, on the Community Code relating to medicinal products for human use.

"By applying such a tool of regulation, EU countries safeguard their citizens against possible imports of poor-quality or counterfeited products, as a license issued for the import of medicines assumes direct contact with a medicine producer. Precisely thanks to the licensing of imported medicines, the chain of suppliers gets rid of all possible intermediaries who profit from buying medicines from each other," Bakhteyeva is quoted by her press service as saying.

Moreover, she said that the licensing would create a system when prices of pharmaceuticals on the Ukrainian market will be comparable to the producer's price and those set in neighboring markets. What is more, prices will be easily controllable, which is an important factor to consumers.

One more positive factor of the licensing is the fact that there will be an entity in Ukraine that could be complained to if the quality of medicines is poor. A license for the import of pharmaceuticals will be issued to a producer or an authorized entity registered in Ukraine. This could be a Ukrainian-based distributor.

She said the licensing system would be introduced in several phases. At the first stage, the licensing of medicine imports will be effected in keeping with the declarative principle.

"Therefore any claims that the licensing of imported medicines will encourage price hikes or create shortages are groundless," she added.