On Saturday, April 16, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman held a working meeting on ensuring the supply of drugs for children with cancer and the cost of medicines in pharmacies.

The meeting was attended by First Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko, as well as representatives of the Health Ministry of Ukraine and the Finance Ministry of Ukraine.

The meeting noted that the problem arose because of inadequate monitoring of the situation and lack of coordinated actions of the Ministries, as well as identified immediate steps by which hospitals would begin to receive the necessary drugs within the next few days. Volodymyr Groisman instructed to inform him daily on the state of solving the problem.

The Prime Minister also instructed the Health Ministry of Ukraine and the Finance Ministry of Ukraine to establish a mechanism and work out the schedule of the supply of medicines in hospitals in order to prevent the occurrence of delays in the future.

They also discussed the issue of high medicine cost for the population. Cost of some medicines in Ukraine differs several times from the prices in neighboring European countries. "Unfortunately, people often die because they simply cannot buy necessary medicines," noted Volodymyr Groysman. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine should make specific suggestions on the issue within a week