“Farm Lobbyism Under the Guise of European Integration: The Dietary Supplement Market in DangerBill No. 4122, which regulates the dietary supplement market, was prepared behind closed doors and could paralyze it, pushing out small manufacturers. This benefits pharmaceutical giants who are losing drug sales and may be linked to lobbying by MP Serhiy Kuzminykh.
”, — write: unn.ua
The bill, which defines the rules for the biologically active additives market, was prepared in silence for almost two years. However, the public and key market players learned about it only at the end of 2024, when the document was put up for discussion.
It turns out that such an important document was developed behind the scenes, behind the backs of pharmaceutical market stakeholders. What is this then, if not lobbying?
What is the interest of pharmaceutical giants?According to experts, the demand for biologically active additives in Ukraine has increased by almost 25% over the past year. At the same time, the demand for medicines decreased by the same amount. This could seriously concern pharmaceutical giants, who are used to maintaining leadership in sales. So, it is logical that they may now try to take control of the dietary supplements segment.
The bill was presented as fulfilling obligations to implement European legislation. However, as experts emphasize, the document differs significantly from European norms: in particular, in the EU, a transitional period of five years is allocated for the implementation of similar changes, while in Ukraine it is only six months. Such “speed” can paralyze the market, because businesses physically do not have time to rebuild production processes and logistics in a few months.
In Europe, they give three, seven, and sometimes even ten years for this. Because they understand: business does not live in a time frame of two months
In fact, a risky “reboot” of the market can turn into a benefit for large pharmaceutical manufacturers. If domestic companies are forced to partially or completely curtail the sale of dietary supplements due to non-compliance with new requirements, and foreign suppliers leave Ukraine due to excessive regulatory rigidity and too short a transition period – the vacuum on pharmacy shelves will quickly be filled by pharmaceutical giants with their own expensive drugs. For them, this is a chance to regain lost positions and compensate for the decline in drug sales, which has been observed for several years.
Kuzminykh and lobbying in pharmaIt seems that MP Serhiy Kuzminykh has once again taken on the task of promoting such beneficial scenarios for big business. Analyzing his statements and posts on social networks, one can conclude that he is doing his best to defend the interests and position of big business regarding the regulation of the biological supplements sphere. Thus, in one of his numerous “blogs” regarding the regulation of the pharmaceutical sphere, he openly wrote
“The free hand of the market” has given rise to hundreds of “fuflo-medicines” that are imposed on patients, often even instead of medicines – dietary supplements
It turns out that the people’s deputy directly speculates on the topic and promotes the theses that dietary supplements are allegedly “fuflo-medicines” that are “imposed on patients.” With his statements, he creates a negative background and a distorted perception of biological supplements among those Ukrainians who read his false theses.
But not by dietary supplements alone. It seems that, in addition to them, Kuzminykh is also lobbying for a ban on marketing between manufacturers and pharmacies. Although it has been banned since March 1, 2025, it is still a “hot topic” for the people’s deputy. Kuzminykh continues to repeat that marketing is to blame for high drug prices. He even submitted a bill on this to the Verkhovna Rada.
At the same time, data from the Ministry of Health confirm that after the marketing ban, the cost of drugs did not decrease, and in many cases even increased. Patients, however, were left without discounts and bonus programs, which were provided precisely through marketing payments.
Moreover, due to financial losses, pharmacy chains are forced to close mobile pharmacy points in the regions. Thus, in July, mobile pharmacies in Kherson and Kharkiv regions ceased operations, leaving residents of more than a hundred villages without access to medicines.
However, Kuzminykh insists: “marketing is evil.” And his disregard for obvious facts suggests that in this case, too, it is not about caring for patients, but about promoting the interests of large players.
In addition, Kuzminykh threatened that he would soon propose a full-fledged model of the Law “On Pharmacies.” Which, according to him, “will restore common sense to the market and put the patient at the center of the system.” Here, the logical question to the people’s deputy himself is, does he really care so much about the patient? Or is it possible that his main focus for changes in the sector is large pharmaceutical players? And the newly promised law will become another lobbying tool that, under the slogans of “caring for the patient,” will actually expand the influence of large pharmaceutical corporations. After all, previous experience shows that all of Kuzminykh’s initiatives in the pharmaceutical sector ended up benefiting pharmaceutical giants.
Connection with “Darnytsia”The player whose interests Kuzminykh defends and protects could well be the pharmaceutical giant “Darnytsia.” After all, as reported by UNN earlier, in 2016-2018, the Kuzminykh brothers’ charitable foundation received over UAH 9.5 million from the Zagoriy family’s foundation – the owners of “Darnytsia.” It is also interesting that during the same period, Kuzminykh worked as a member of the Ministry of Health commission, which was engaged in terminating the validity of registration certificates. This fact even became a reason for an inspection by the National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP). At that time, the head of the NACP department, Serhiy Derkach, stated that there was a potential conflict of interest in the actions of one of the members of the Ministry of Health commission, who has his own foundation and received money from the owner of a pharmaceutical giant.
Today, the deputy’s rhetoric and the company’s official statements coincide so much that lawyers are already talking about the possibility of a linguistic examination to establish the real authorship. And it may also indicate a probable illegal influence that requires verification by anti-corruption bodies.
ConclusionSo, history repeats itself: it seems that after pharmaceutical giants used the ban on marketing agreements in their own interests, they are now seeking to conquer the dietary supplements market as well. The rapid, behind-the-scenes adoption of regulation without dialogue with market representatives, a short transition period, the risk of displacing foreign and weakening small domestic producers – all this creates a threat not only for business, but also for the health of millions of Ukrainians. Thus, if the bill comes into force in its current form, Ukrainians risk losing access to high-quality and safe dietary supplements.