Elena Astapenko, Director of the Department of Pharmaceutical Provision and Regulation of the Circulation of Medical Devices of the Ministry of Health of Russia, announced the lack of funds for the program “14 high-cost nosologies” (VZN). These words sounded at a round table in the Public Chamber, writes “Pharmaceutical Bulletin”.
The official noticed that at the moment she did not see a solution to the problem. “The savings generated by public procurement will not be enough to cover the needs,” she stressed.
60 billion rubles were allocated for the program last year. In this, there is no possibility to satisfy the requests of the regions. The information was confirmed by Olga Konstantinova, Deputy Director of the Federal Center for Planning and Organization of Medicinal Provision of Citizens. According to her, there is not much budget money left in the program.
Several patient organizations that also participated in the roundtable said they already faced a shortage of drugs that were supposed to be purchased under the program.
Already after the publication of the material about the round table, Assistant Minister of Health Alexei Kuznetsov said that all patients will be provided with the necessary medicines. Due to what, the official did not indicate. In turn, Konstantinova said that her organization is optimizing the process of planning and collecting applications in order to prevent the procurement of excess drugs.
At the beginning of March, it was reported that in Russia, patients with Gaucher disease, about 450 people in the country, have not received vital medicine for at least two months.
The scandal over funds for the VZN program broke out in September 2020. Then, in the explanatory note to the draft budget, it was said that expenses would be reduced by 19.5 billion rubles. Later, the Ministry of Finance explained that such a proposal took place only in the previous version, and the costs of the program will not change.