The number of pharmacies-participants of the Affordable Medicines program to reimburse the cost of medicines to treat cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus of second type and bronchial asthma grew by 18% since early 2018, to 8,003 pharmacies, Ukraine's Health Ministry has reported.

The ministry said that since early 2018, medicines using 12.5 million prescriptions for the amount of UAH 600 million were sold under the program. Since the launch of the program in April 2017 as of today, 6.6 million patients received medicines under 26.5 million prescriptions.

The program is the most popular in Dnipropetrovsk region, where around 620,000 patients receive medicines, while in Kharkiv region over 550,000 patients benefit from the program, in Lviv region – over 530,000, and in Kyiv city – over 420,000.

As reported, the Affordable Medicines reimbursement program for three diseases (cardiovascular diseases, bronchial asthma and diabetes mellitus of second type) was launched in Ukraine on April 1, 2017. From the national budget for 2018 for the program UAH 1 billion was assigned. The current register of medicines, the cost of which is subject to reimbursement, includes 261 medicines (59 of them without surcharge), 49 pharmaceutical manufacturers: 18 Ukrainian and 28 foreign.

According to the draft national budget for 2019, UAH 1 billion is announced for the reimbursement program.