The war is changing the situation on the drug market: there is a certain shortage with imported medicines, and many of the Western pharmaceutical companies are still operating in the market of the aggressor country. As a consequence, Ministry of Public Health on March 8 urged Ukrainians to choose the medicines when buying based on their active substance and availability in the pharmacy, and not on the trade name or the producer's brand. The report notes that all medicines of both domestic and foreign production undego the state registration procedure, therefore, all drugs are of the same quality.
It is important to understand that 94% of medicines in Ukraine are generic drugs (also called "generics" in various sources). A generic drug is a nonproprietary medicine that reproduces the original drug for which the patent protection period has expired.
A generic has the same qualitative and quantitative composition of active substances and the same dosage form as the reference drug, and most importantly, its equivalence to the latter is proven. According to modern requirements, registration of a generic in the form of tablets, capsules or other so-called "Solid Dosage Forms" is impossible without its bioequivalence study. Bioequivalence studies prove that after taking the generic drug, the rate and volume of the active substance absorption into the blood are almost the same as after taking the original medicine. Therefore, the therapeutic effect of the original and a generic medicine with proven bioequivalence will be the same.
