Ukraine will cancel a complete ban on the sale of medicine via the Internet no earlier than in 2014, Head of the State Administration of Medicinal Products of Ukraine Oleksiy Solovyov has said.
"There is the intention in future to draw up special regulations for on-line drugstores to simplify access to medicine, while placing strict limitations on this business," he said during a phone-in with the Uriadovy Kurier governmental newspaper.
"It’ll be possible to implement this plan no earlier than in 2014. Before that, we’ll have to study the corresponding experience of countries in Europe," Solovyov said.
According to him, only 20% of the countries in Europe allow the sale of medicine via the Internet.
"We also want to join this list to increase access to medicine, first of all, from the point of view of price policy," Solovyov said.
He also said that by the end of 2012 all chemist kiosks, which today sell low-quality and counterfeit products, would be shut down in Ukraine. There are only 1,500 such kiosks, which is 10% of the total number of chemist’s outlets, the administration’s head said.
According to Solovyov, on average there is one chemist’s outlet per 2,300 people in Ukrainian cities and per 3,150 people in villages, which is similar to the figures in Europe.
To bring the figure down to 2,700-2,800 people in villages in the nearest future, the service will direct its regulatory mechanisms to reducing demand at village drugstores, while retaining the quality of their services, he said.
