International organizations meet their commitments regarding terms of supplies of medicines procured using budget funds and the deliveries are regulated depending on the needs of the regions, Deputy Health Minister of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna has said.

"The problem of the absence of procured medicines is sliding away, as in the past 18 months the Health Ministry did everything to catch the procurement process. Now the schedule of supplies is reorganized in line with the needs of the regions, and not with the calendar year. Now we are receiving the medicines procured using budgets of the previous years. Under the most programs, there is different amount of medicines," she said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Commenting on the information about medicine supplies posted on the website of the Health Ministry, Stefanishyna said that this information shows the amount of spent funds, not the amount of medicines procured.

"We have 100% need and there is a part that the state can finance – a quota. In 2016, almost all medicines came to the country meeting 100% quotas, and now we are additionally procuring medicines using saved money. The additional procurement allows covering a large part of the need. For example, the additional procurement using saved money reached 67%. Now we see manipulations from opponents of procurement via international organizations. If we look at the money, it seems like no all procurement was completed. In fact, the amount ordered was brought by international organizations, but the money was left, and they are being spent to receive the additional number of medicines," she said.

Stefanishyna pointed out manipulations by opponents of procurement via international organizations.

"0.4% of medicines for 2015 budget funds are not supplied, and it can be seen in the official information of the Health Ministry. However, in fact, these are medicines that are currently unavailable on the world market. Unfortunately, the deputies are silent that before the transfer of procurement to the international organizations, we had under-procurement for a very large part of the medicines. For example, in 2014, the Health Ministry did not purchase a number of vaccines, but UNICEF, which now purchases vaccines, buys everything except the vaccine with an acellular component that is in low supply in the entire global market," she said.