There is a problem of an acute shortage of laboratories to check the quality of vaccines and blood preparations in Ukraine, Deputy Head of the State Service of Medicinal Products of Ukraine Inna Demchenko said at a roundtable on Thursday.
“There is a shortage of labs that can monitor the quality of vaccines and
blood preparations. We don’t have a laboratory to check blood preparations at
all and only one laboratory which can check the quality of vaccines, but not in
full,” she told Interfax-Ukraine.
Demchenko said that Ukraine needs at least two labs to check vaccines, and
they should have different types of equipment.
She said that there are enough labs to check medicines in Ukraine. The
central laboratory in Kyiv certified by the WHO is in the structure of the State
Service of Medicinal Products of Ukraine.
“There are 16 labs certified by the WHO and show high compliance with WHO
standards in the world. The lab was accredited by the European Directorate for
the Quality of Medicines. This means that the results of the lab are recognized
in Europe and do not require additional checking,” she said.
Demchenko said that due to the annexation of Crimea by Russia the number of
labs that can use all methods of quality control reduced in Ukraine.
“There were three such labs – in Kyiv region, Donetsk and Crimea. [The
Crimean lab] was well equipped and all southern regions conducted checks in it,”
she said.
She said that 10 second-tier labs check medicines in the regions, as well as
14 labs with minimum equipment.
“Each service has labs, but they are equipped in a different way and they
have various capabilities. The labs of the State Service of Medicinal Products
of Ukraine can conduct all of the required checks,” she said.
