Ukraine to tighten quality control over medicines

Ukraine is mulling tightened controls on sales and production of medicines, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko said Tuesday. "We will not allow any production or distribution of counterfeit drugs," Hryschenko told the International Conference on Public Health. Ukrainian authorities are working to implement a special medicines supervision system, he said. According to the official, health regulators will closely monitor the country's drugs market, in particular medications that are sold over the Internet, to ensure that drugs meet all the required quality and safety criteria. Hryschenko added that over the past three years, regulatory authorities seized nearly 8 million packages of substandard or counterfeit drugs from manufacturers and sellers. Last year, the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market reached over 3.9 billion U.S. dollars, he said.