In 2009, the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, by a resolution, decided to establish the company SK-Pharmacy LLP in the structure of National Wealth Fund Samruk-Kazyna JSC.
Then, on May 25, 2013, by a decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the rights to own and use a 100% stake in SK-Pharmacy LLP were transferred to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
It should be noted that the Single Distributor system was created with the aim of providing medicines to the population within the framework of the guaranteed volume of medical care, increasing the stability and competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry in Kazakhstan, developing the pharmaceutical industry by consolidating public procurement of medicines in accordance with the legislation of the country and registered with the justice authorities as a Partnership with 100% participation of the state and represents the interests of the state.
Advantages of a single distribution system represented by SK-Pharmacy:
1. Equal access to medicines for the population: Before the creation of SK-Pharmacy, the regions procured drugs on their own, and the prices for medicines in different regions could vary significantly.
2. Saving budgetary funds. Consolidation of volumes from all over the republic makes it possible to obtain significant discounts due to large volumes; access to international contracts directly with foreign manufacturers (price reduction due to the exclusion of a distributor from the procurement chain) and through international organizations of the UN system (UNICEF, UNDP) - access to medicines prequalified by WHO at the lowest prices.
Due to lower prices, within the budget allocated to hospitals and polyclinics for medicine provision, it is possible to procure a greater volume of medicines. Savings over the period of activity of SK-Pharmacy amounted to 162.9 billion tenge. For 2021 - 32.7 billion tenge.
3. Development of the pharmaceutical industry: support for domestic development and development of the domestic pharmaceutical industry: conclusion of 10-year contracts with domestic manufacturers (guaranteed sales market and investment attractiveness). As a result, pharmaceutical reporting has become one of the most dynamically developing. The share of domestic manufacturers increased to 41%.
Under the COVID-19 quarantine conditions, it was domestic factories that contributed to the rapid saturation of the market with medicines by switching to a three-shift mode of operation and reformatting production.
4. Developed logistics network: SK-Pharmacy ensures the delivery of medicines even to the most remote settlements without increasing the cost of medicines.
5. Transparency of procurement: Procurement is carried out in electronic format on a specially developed platform of the Center for Electronic Finance of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan. All procedures are open and transparent, every action in the system leaves a digital trail, which eliminates the corruption of procurement.
6. Irreducible stock: At the expense of SK-Pharmacy's own funds, a minimum stock of up to 25% of the total annual need for medicines has been formed.
The global crisis during the pandemic has rapidly changed the work and approaches of SK-Pharmacy. At the most difficult time for the Kazakh medicine supply system, the question arose of a complete revision of existing processes. In 2020-2021, a course was taken for a complete Reboot of the system. A patient-oriented medicine supply system has become a priority.
Rebooting SK-Pharmacy is a dynamic and continuous process of improvement. Formation of conditions for the supply, which, on the one hand, ensure stable work on improving quality, and on the other hand, manifesting a sharp innovative increase, the density of SK-Pharmacy is a flexible response to changing market requirements. So, within the framework of the SK-Pharmacia Reloading program:
1) Fighting covid-19. Stocks of medicines, personal protective equipment were created in medical organizations, as well as in the warehouses of SK-Pharmacy for prompt shipment.
2) Improving logistics such processes have been modernized. To change the situation, the logistics format was changed from static to dynamic.
The measures taken made it possible to reduce the terms of transportation of medicines by four times, to increase the efficiency and timeliness of deliveries according to the principle of shipment "from wheels".
In cases of preventing the delay of humanitarian cargo, a model of preliminary information was developed, when documents sent to the country for humanitarian cargo are sent in advance.
In total, in 2020, more than 80 consignments of humanitarian cargo from foreign states, international and domestic organizations were accompanied. The work continues to this day.
A pilot project on the digitalization of the «cold chain» of vaccines with the participation of SK-Pharmacy has been completed. The process ensures effective control of the movement of vaccines to the end user in compliance with the «cold chain» principle. This makes it possible to track the location and belonging, and the temperature regime during the transportation of each package.
3) Improvement of procurement procedures, draft Procurement Rules 375 was developed, which was supported by the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and entered into force.
The main changes in this decision were:
4) Improving the planning of medicines by the regions. SK-Pharmacy has proposed a new model for planning medicines.
A working group was created and, with the direct participation of the Single Distributor, a draft of the Rules and a methodology for generating the need for drugs and medical devices within the framework of the SVFMC and SCSHI were developed. The essence of the model is that an application is automatically generated based on the data of the ERDP and MIS information systems.
So, from April 15, 2021, a pilot was launched to calculate the automated need based on the data of the average daily dose (WHO DDD), the average course duration and the number (multiplicity) of courses of use per year for each drug with the appropriate nosology, taking into account treatment regimens and dosages, recommended by the Kazakhstani national medicinal formulary, clinical protocols of the Republic of Kazakhstan and (or) according to the instructions for the medical use of drugs, with the calculation of the annual requirement per patient in procurement units of drugs. After the results of the pilot, approval is planned at the level of the order of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
5) Support of domestic pharmaceutical industry:
To attract foreign investors to the pharmaceutical industry of Kazakhstan, the Single Distributor, together with Kazakh Invest, prepared a guide for potential investors ready to localize their production in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan - INVESTMENTGUIDEBOOK. The document is intended, on the basis of the one-stop shop principle, to provide a platform for major drug brands to enter the country from packaging to the full production cycle.
In order to implement measures to develop the pharmaceutical industry in Kazakhstan, SK-Pharmacy holds meetings with major players in the global pharmaceutical industry, during which their long-term plans for presence in the Kazakhstani pharmaceutical market and investment issues in the industry are discussed.
Kazakhstan is interested in attracting investments and advanced technologies necessary for the successful implementation of the modernization of the economy.
Today, at various stages of the process, negotiations are underway with 7 BIGPHARMA pharmaceutical companies on 13 investment projects for contract manufacturing (Hoffmann-La Roche (Switzerland), Novo Nordisk (Denmark), AstraZeneca (Great Britain), Sandoz (Switzerland), TAKEDA (Japan) PFIZER, ATABAY Pharmaceuticals and Fine Chemicals). The cost of investments will be more than 17 billion tenge.
Key importance is attached to the development of the production of expensive innovative products, the promotion of the industry in the direction of technology transfer, its digitalization, as well as the development of a cluster initiative.
As international practice shows, the attraction of domestic research institutes, scientific laboratories of large medical universities like R&D centers, as well as their deployment in free economic and industrial zones, will become a great incentive for the development of pharmaceutical clusters.
At the moment, 3 cluster zones are being considered in the cities of Aktobe, Nur-Sultan and Shymkent.
6) Improvement of interaction with the public. Feedback channels have been established to improve interaction with the public. Among them are the official website, the Blog of the Chairman of the Board, "For Patients", "People's Control", "Report an Offences" sections on the official website, Contact Center,
Also monitoring and feedback with patients, public organizations is carried out through social networks Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp.
In addition, a public working group has been created, where the most pressing issues of ensuring security are revealed. Today, at the meeting of the working group, 6 meetings and a meeting with the Minister of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan were held. The meeting of the working group meeting is broadcast on the official Facebook page of SK-Pharmacy. All issues raised were included in the Book of Problematic Issues. It has already worked out 44 systemic issues.
There is a Contact Center for drug provision within the framework of the SVFMC and in the SCSHI system by the short number 1439, which is available for both fixed and mobile phones. So, in 2021, 27,129 calls were received from the population.
A meeting was held with patient organizations on different groups of diseases. All proposals and appeals voiced during the meeting are included in the Register of Issues.
Meetings were held with medical associations on topical issues of planning and medical supply.
In its work, SK-Pharmacy is open to direct dialogue and interaction and is committed to close cooperation and constructive dialogue so that each valuable proposal finds practical implementation and will be a useful tool for improving the provision of medicines to the population.