Pavel Latushka, deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, Head of the National Anti-Crisis Management, ambassador
The so-called representative of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, Anatol Grushkovsky, head of the department of external relations, took part in the 154th session of the Executive Committee of the World Health Organisation, which was held in Geneva.
It may seem, well, he did and he did. But the problem is that representatives of the regime still have not only the opportunity to participate in such events, but also to speak out and broadcast outright lies on international platforms. Grushkovsky did the same, having told the participants of the session fundamentally inaccurate and distorted information about the problems with the supply of foreign pharmaceutical products in Belarus.
Among other things, the representative of the Ministry of Health of the Lukashenko regime said that (quote) "among the unfavourable external factors are problems with the supply of medicines and medical products due to the unilateral restrictive measures imposed on Belarus. This is detrimental to the most vulnerable groups of the population that depend on state support."
We have repeatedly rejected such statements about medicines, but this propaganda thesis continues to gain momentum and reaches the international level. We have seen a similar situation with the false narrative about the threat of "world hunger", which is allegedly caused by sanctions on potash fertilisers. Methodical work to disprove this narrative has yielded results and the regime's lies are currently being countered. In the case of medicines, the regime's manipulations go even further in their absurdity. In reality, absolutely NO sanctions were imposed on medicines and medical devices. Moreover, the very possibility of applying such restrictions was not even discussed.
At the same time, many companies, including pharmacological ones, refuse to cooperate with Belarus on their own initiative. But the reason for this is not economic sanctions, but the toxicity of the Lukashenko regime itself, with which international business does not want to do deal: because of mass repressions, because of the regime's actions that undermine international security, such as the hijacking of a civilian aircraft, the migration crisis provoked by the regime, but mainly because of the regime's participation in the military aggression against Ukraine.
Even so, according to the statistical data of Eurostat, over the last 8 years, Belarus has annually INCREASED its purchases of European pharmaceutical products, including during the previous three sanction years. Thus, even allegedly "under the conditions of unilateral sanctions", which illegitimate representatives of Belarus in the UN are trying to complain about, imports of medicines are constantly growing. To the point that Lukashenko is going to increase the supply of medicines to Uzbekistan, which proves that there is no real deficit.
Seeking to prove the contrary, the so-called representative of the Ministry of Health, Grushkovski, gave several examples, which, in his opinion, indicate the impact of sanctions on the supply of drugs in Belarus.
The first example concerned the Swedish company Molnlycke Health Care. According to Grushkovski, this company refuses to supply Belarus with bandages necessary for palliative treatment of children suffering from the congenital genetic disease — epidermolysis bullosa. The same was stated by Elena Dovgan — allegedly an independent UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, but in fact a representative of the current illegitimate authorities of Belarus. She even sent a letter on this issue to the Swedish government.
However, again, sanctions have nothing to do with it. This company has restricted the supply of its products to Russia and Belarus, which, due to the fault of the Lukashenko regime, has become an accomplice of Russian aggression, openly declared its solidarity with Ukraine, and even posted information about it on its official website.
In its response to Mrs Dovgan, the Swedish government noted that decisions not to sell certain products to Belarus are private decisions of a private company. Swedish private companies are not under the control of the government and are free to make their own decisions. For our part, we can assume that this decision of the company is due to the fact that the bandages can be actively used for the needs of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation during the aggression against Ukraine. And in this context, the decision looks more than logical and reasonable.
In addition, the Swedish government considers Elena Dovgan's interpretation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to be too broad, as it refers to the responsibility of companies to supply medical products to specific markets. However, the responsibility to provide adequate health care lies primarily with states.
That is, the Belarusian state is responsible for providing the necessary medicines to the residents of Belarus, which is currently seized by the Lukashenko regime.
As noted by the Swedish government, EU residents are free to conduct their business as they see fit, in accordance with EU and national law. This means that private companies such as Molnlycke Health Care can start, continue or terminate their business with third countries.
As for the rare disease, bullous epidermolysis, which Dovgan is trying to speculate about — previously the charity fund "Chance" provided assistance to children with this disease. For example, back on 11 July 2017, the International Charitable Foundation for Children "Chance" and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus signed a new programme "Assistance to Children with Epidermolysis Bullosa".
However, the events of the last two years in Belarus, associated with the attack on civil society structures and mass repressions, have affected the work of the foundation directly. For example, for the first time "Chance" was left without the sponsorship of Belgazprombank, which had been one of the main partners of the fund for 13 years. And the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the fund was... yes, Viktor Babariko, who was the initiator of the programme to help children with this rare disease. Now Viktor Babariko is a political prisoner. That is, again, the main guilty of this situation is Lukashenko's regime, not someone else.
Other companies, which were mentioned by the so-called representative of the Ministry of Health at the session of the WHO Executive Committee and, according to the data given, have stopped supplying certain medicines to the Belarusian market, produce medicines that have numerous analogues supplied to Belarus.
Thus, according to the Ministry of Health, the Polish company Tarchomin Pharmaceutical Works Polfa S.A. has stopped supplying Clonazepam, Relium and other drugs necessary for the treatment of epilepsy and somatic diseases to Belarus since 2022. However, Clonazepam has several full analogues produced in Cyprus and Russia, as well as 183 nosological analogues, which are produced in more than a dozen countries. The drug Relium also has more than 50 analogues (e.g., such as Relanium, Sibazon, Diazepex) manufactured in several countries, including Russia.
In addition, Relium or Diazepam is a Schedule IV drug in the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. This means that for substances in Schedule IV, there are requirements for manufacturers, exporters and importers to keep records indicating the quantities manufactured, exported and imported.
The British company Atnahs Pharma UK Limited, now Pharmanovia, which, according to the Ministry of Health of Belarus, stopped supplying Bonviva and Rockaltrol, used for the treatment of osteoporosis, is also not the only manufacturer of these drugs. Bonviva and Rockaltrol have numerous analogues, produced in Belarus, Russia, Germany, Austria, Portugal, India, UAE, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
According to Anatoli Grushkovski, the UK supervisory authority (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) allegedly delayed the procedure for issuing a licence to export morphine tablets, used to relieve patients suffering from cancer and the consequences of severe trauma, to Belarus. At the same time, analogues of British morphine tablets are widely presented on the Belarusian and Russian market. Meanwhile, morphine is actively used in army medicine — that is, in military needs. Which again leads to a logical answer — foreign pharmaceutical companies simply do not want to help military aggressors.
Thus, the medicines, which a number of the above-mentioned European companies stopped or were going to stop supplying to the Belarusian market, have analogues and are sold in Belarus. The main reason for the shortage of some drugs on the Belarusian market is the policy of the Lukashenko regime itself.
Thus, Dzmitry Pinevich — until recently the so-called Minister of Health of the Republic of Belarus, speaking about the necessity of import substitution in the pharmaceutical industry, stated that (quote) "the task for us is extremely difficult, extremely tough - by the end of 2025, the formulary list should consist of 70% of domestically produced drugs, and we are making every effort for this purpose".
In turn, the policy of artificial import substitution in the Belarusian pharmacological market led to the increase in prices and reduction of the range of drugs in the retail pharmacy network of Belarus.
Thus, drug prices in Belarus are growing twice as fast as inflation. In 2023, they increased by 13.36%. The reason for this lies in the fact that the state buys a number of drugs in bulk, sometimes many times more expensive than they cost, for example, in Russian pharmacies — a detailed analysis was recently presented by the Belarusian Investigative Centre.
Some manufacturers and suppliers can dictate their prices due to limited competition, which is caused, among other things, by the complicated procedure of registration of analogues of medical drugs.
In Belarus, the situation is complicated by the fact that any, well, or almost any official has the right of veto, which can very much slow down or destroy the idea of registration of some drug. Naturally, if a person close to the authorities is interested in trading any drug, no other competitor will be allowed to enter the market
Trying to artificially raise the problem of shortage of medicines in Belarus, the Lukashenko regime tries to keep silent that thousands of political prisoners, who are in correctional facilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, are deliberately deprived of access to these very medicines and necessary medical care. This is evidenced by the data of human rights defenders.
The humanitarian lists, compiled by human rights defenders and activists, include more than 200 political prisoners. All of them have serious health problems and therefore urgently need medical care and treatment, but this problem is hidden by the representatives of the regime.
Therefore, our task is to increase pressure on the Lukashenko regime to release them. Our proposed special sanctions package on groups of goods, analogues of which are produced by political prisoners in the so-called open and closed correctional facilities, is aimed at this. We have already sent the relevant proposals to EU bodies and to the diplomatic services of individual EU member States. As a result, these proposals have now even been reflected in the European Parliament Resolution of 8 February 2024.
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