Keywords
consumer availability
drug registration
Internet pharmacy
pharmaceutical market
Abstract
Nanopharmacy is engaged in the development of drugs dosage forms based on nanomaterials for use in medical practice, creates technologies for obtaining nanopharmaceuticals. There are already nanophar-maceuticals in the world that have proven their effectiveness and are approved for use, but their availability is not the same in different countries and an urgent issue of healthcare is to increase the availability of high-tech medicines for all patients. The nanopharmaceuticals presence at the pharmaceutical market in Ukraine has not been studied early and needs its investigation. The aim of thе study – to evaluate the availability of nanopharmaceutical on pharmaceutical market in Ukraine and their accessibiliti for patients.
From the list of nanopharmaceuticals available on the global pharmaceutical market, 10 names were selected: Lipodox®, Ambisome®, Cimzia®, Naulasta®, Pegasys®, Oncaspar®, Copaxone®, Renagel®, Rapamune® and Feraheme®. According to the instructions, the main indications for use, the manufacturer and registration in Ukraine were determined. Availability in domestic online pharmacies was assessed using materials from the 10 most powerful Internet resources of this kind. The possibility of obtaining from other countries was judged based on information from 10 sites opened in response to this search query. It was shown that the selected nanopreparations belong to different pharmacotherapeutic groups and contain such nanosystems as liposomes, polymer nanoparticles, nanocrystals, and inorganic nanoparticles. At the time of the study, two drugs (Rapamune® and Copaxone®) and two complete analogues of other drugs (Dopolo® and Pegfilgrastim-Vista®) were registered in Ukraine that was 40%, or 4/10, of all examined drugs. It was found that direct purchase of the studied nanopharmaceuticals is possible in the network of Internet pharmacies (30%, or 3/10), as well as through services for ordering medicines from other countries (100%, or 10/10 drugs), which in some cases is able to provide treatment, but does not meet the interests of patients with long-term use of the nanopreparation. In all cases, the prices for nanotechnology drugs are critically high. Thus, nanodrugs are present in a limited number on the pharmaceutical market of Ukraine, their domestic production is absent, and purchases are not systematic. The main factor limiting the availability of nanopharmaceuticals for Ukrainian consumers is the price of this category of drugs, which requires the development of a mechanism for compensating consumers for the purchase of these high-tech prescription drugs.
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