In general, a new list of pharmaceuticals contains 261 commercial product names, which is by 22 more preparations than in the previous registry.

On August 3, 2018, the Ministry of Health approved a new register of medicines available under the Government program The Available Medicine, which patients with cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes and bronchial asthma may receive free or with a small extra charge. The updated medicine register included 261 items. 59 of these preparations, patients will be able to receive completely free of charge. It should be noted that previously 239 preparations in general and 47 free medicines took part in the program.

The estimated number of free medicines for patients will also increase: if in the past six months, patients could receive about 10 million packages, over the next 6 months their number will be over 14 million.

"The Available Medicine program reimbursement policy has proved its efficiency. Millions of Ukrainians receive medicines on a monthly basis free of charge or on substantial discounts. The program continues to grow dynamically: number of medicines is growing, the prices get smaller. And all this is happening voluntarily, as manufacturers on their own initiative reduce the price of medicines to get into the program and on a list of free medicines", said Deputy Minister of Health Roman Ilyk.

The list of free medicines includes not only drugs from Ukrainian manufacturers, but also well-known foreign companies. So, for example, the company KRKA (Slovenia), for example, reduced the price by almost 72% to get into a new list of drugs that are 100% reimbursed from state budget funds. Prices have also been reduced by Orion (Finland) and AstraZeneca (Sweden).

On average, the prices for pharmaceuticals dropped by almost 7%.

It should be noted, the Government program Available Medicines triggered in April 2017. During the program, patients received medicines to cure cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes and bronchial asthma under 23 million recipes worth more than UAH 1 billion. Each third pharmacy participates in the program - now there are 7,808.