Priority in the procurement of medicines should be given to domestic manufacturers.

This opinion was expressed by First Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Oleksandr Komarida in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"It seems to me that in procurement, priority should be given to domestic manufacturers. Now, there is a simplified procurement procedure for hospitals, when they can directly buy any medicines. We monitor this procurement. And when we saw that hospitals began to purchase foreign drugs, analogues of which exist in Ukraine, they asked them to buy Ukrainian medicines," Komarida said.

He also believes that the pharmaceutical sector should become one of the driving forces of the Ukrainian economy, so a domestic manufacturer producing a quality product should be supported.

"Over the past year, we have been working on a list of vital drugs, which will consist of drugs only from Ukrainian manufacturers. This will be at least a three-five-year procurement order. We will supply Ukrainians with such drugs without interruption. We are just returning to these plans," Komarida said.