Ukraine may become a pharmaceutical hub after the end of the war, - Shymkiv

Ukraine may become a pharmaceutical hub after the end of the war. The key factors are the high level of production culture, the volume of pharmaceutical production and the development of new technologies.

Dmytro Shymkiv, the chairman of the board of directors of Darnitsa, told about this in his interview with Forbes.

According to him, one of the main priorities for the domestic pharmaceutical market is exports, because it guarantees foreign currency earnings. The conditions are the following: Ukraine has several powerful pharmaceutical manufacturers, among which Darnitsa ranks first in terms of output.

“Increased opportunities, new technologies and development of Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry is our priority. Before the war we had 113 pharmaceutical plants, most of them were new. Darnitsa can manufacture 600 million of packages per year, therefore we are able to cope with the demand not only of Ukraine but also of the region,” Dmytro Shymkiv said. “It is the production culture and production volumes that have allowed us to produce Pfizer drugs for COVID-19 and mRNA vaccines under the WHO program. We will work in these directions in the emerging markets.”

Furthermore, one of the advantages of Ukraine can be the efficiency of decision-making and the speed of bureaucratic processes, which now can take a day compared to 8 or 10 days in Europe, Canada or the USA. According to the chairman of the board of directors of Darnitsa, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine is currently gaining the experience in resolving non-trivial issues, including payment for distributors and networks; output and manufacturing of urgently required medicines and delivery of medicines in extremely difficult conditions.

“Many people are waiting for the country return to the level that was before February 24 and can’t accept the fact that this will never happen. In business, there is the same situation: business will never be the same as it was before the war, there will be war and post-war business. And it will be a completely new format,” Dmytro Shymkiv said.

Darnitsa Pharmaceutical Company is the largest* pharmaceutical manufacturer in Ukraine in terms of output and sales. The company was founded in 1930. Strategic directions of portfolio development are cardiology, neurology and pain management.

* In physical terms according to Proxima Research 2022