Vital Austrian Drug Disappears From Minsk Pharmacies

The Ministry of Health proposes to replace it with an analogue.

Patients suffering from certain malignant neoplasms, for example, breast cancer, are prescribed Tamoxifen. The state budget provides Belarusians with the Ukrainian medicine. However, a person can take the drug of other manufacturers as well - at their own expense. So, many people bought the Austrian Tamoxifen-Ebewe. However, it disappeared from pharmacies, a cancer patient from Minsk told tut.by.

On the tabletka.by resource, indeed, only Ukrainian medicine is offered. In the same question and answer section, people regularly ask when the Austrian drug will appear. They are told that “the medicine is purchased centrally, this issue is within the competence of RUE “Belfarmacia”.

In Russia, the choice of this medicine in pharmacies is wider than ours. For example, they sell the drug produced in Finland, Germany, and Russia.

Spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health Yulia Baradun noted that the purchase of medicines for budget money is conducted through an electronic auction and other public procurement procedures. In 2019, the winner of the auction was the Ukrainian manufacturer of the drug Tamoxifen. It is provided to the patients free of charge under prescriptions.

Moreover, two more Tamoxifen preparations are registered in our country - EBEWE (Austria) and EGIS (Hungary). The drug produced in Germany and Finland is not registered in Belarus.

As they noted in the Ministry of Health, the RUE “Belfarmacia” has “Tamoxifen-Ebewe” for delayed patient care according to doctor’s prescriptions. The thing is that if a person has a prescription for the Austrian Tamoxifen-Ebewe, then they can come to their local pharmacy, order it and the medicine will be brought from the warehouse within a few days.

The Ministry notes that the next delivery of Tamoxifen-Ebewe is expected in November 2019.