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Health

Kyrgyzstan needs additionally 1 bln soms for treatment of 5 diseases (including TB, HIV, cancer)

Kyrgyzstan needs additionally 1 billion soms for treatment of 5 diseases (including TB, HIV, cancer). The head of the Association of Harm Reduction Programs "Partner network" Aybar Sultangaziev told today at a press conference of 24.kg news agency.

"This is a critical amount without which people can not live. Quite a lot of funds may be optimized from the existing resources, an opportunity to somewhere save the money can be found. We have found out that many drugs take a monopoly position, that is, they are single on the market and can dictate price. And often the price is 2-5 times higher than in other countries. We looked at the public procurement - the price is 15-20 or even 100 percent higher than in the international market. It raises questions. We found out that there are problems with the registration of medicines, the procurement process itself has no clinical protocols on certain diseases. And not enough is done to address these issues so far," Aybar Sultangaziev said.

Government representative Anara Eshhodzhaeva agreed that the drug supply topic is uncomfortable. "In recent years, the issue is being considered very carefully even at the level of the Anticorruption Business Council. An interdepartmental working group was formed to develop a package of documents which are considered by the government. Taking into account the fact that the drug sector was in private hands for more than 15 years, there was enough time to saturate the country with medicines. And there was no price regulation, pricing policies at the government level. Such work is only just beginning," she said.

It was noted that Kyrgyzstan is one of seven countries with the highest rates of HIV growth and is one of 27 countries with the highest rate of multiple-drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. "In order to fully supply the HIV positive people and TB patients with medicines in 2018 Kyrgyzstan needs at least $ 911,000 for antiretrovirals, about $ 3 million - for the treatment of MDR TB. In addition, already from 2016 the state must allocate at least $ 500,000 for the purchase of first-line drugs. The state allocates 10 million soms a year for purchase of immunosuppressors for patients with transplanted organs with the demand five times higher, and the treatment of cancer since 2010 is not provided at all, except three million, allocated in 2015 for the children, "Partner network" said.