Pharmacy business on blood: National Police neutralizes sellers of Russian drugs
25 February 2025 14:56
Operatives of the Strategic Investigations Department of the National Police tracked down a scheme for the illegal importation and sale of more than 20 items of Russian medicines to Ukraine, organized by two Azerbaijani citizens. This was reported by the National Police, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
As you know, the sale of Russian medicines has been banned in Ukraine since June 8, 2022. This is stipulated by the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Medicines’ to Restrict the Circulation of Medicines Manufactured in the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus, as well as the Export of Medicines from Ukraine.”
The offenders sold everything that was in demand through a network of pharmacies and the Internet – antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, immunomodulators, mental performance enhancers, etc.
How the scheme of import and sale of Russian medicines worked
The National Police operatives established that the medicines were sent from Russia to Moldova by buses. From there, the offenders took them personally and brought them to Ukraine, hiding them from customs control. According to preliminary estimates, the offenders paid Russian pharmacies at least one and a half million hryvnias for their goods.
To stop the illegal activity, the police conducted a series of authorized searches in the pharmacy chain where the Russian medicines were sold and at the suspects’ residences. They seized cell phones and computers with evidence of the crimes and more than a hundred foreign medicines, including more than three dozen Russian ones.
The National Police investigators gathered enough evidence and served two organizers – owners of the pharmacy chain and two pharmacists – with a notice of suspicion for conducting business activities in cooperation with the aggressor state as part of an organized group (Part 3 of Article 28, Part 4 of Article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The defendants face up to five years in prison with confiscation of property. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing, and other possible persons involved in the crime are being identified.
In addition, the police informed the State Service of Ukraine on Medicines and Drugs Control about the illegal transaction, and after reviewing their letter, the supervisory authority decided to revoke the businessmen’s licenses to conduct business activities in the retail and wholesale trade in medicines.
This story has its own background
In the middle of last year, Schemes journalists conducted an investigation that exposed a pharmacy chain in the capital that, despite the ban, sold Russian medicines and Western drugs produced specifically for the Russian market during the full-scale war. This was reported by Radio Liberty.
The journalists conducted their own experiment by ordering several illegal drugs from a Kyiv pharmacy chain. They also interviewed its customers, who confirmed that they had bought illegal drugs there.
The journalistic investigation reports that the pharmacy chain in question is El’Pharm. By the way, the similarity of the photos published by the police and the Schemes program, as well as other facts, indicates that they are about the same case.
The journalists reported that the pharmacy chain in question was registered to two brothers, private entrepreneurs. They are citizens of Azerbaijan. They live in Kyiv. They received their first license for the pharmacy business from the State Service of Ukraine on Medicines and Drugs Control in 2018.
According to the Schemes, the deficient and illegal medicines were sold three to four times more expensive than their market value – through pharmacies and the Internet. Medicines were also sent by mail.
“Skhemy then turned to law enforcement to find out whether they knew about the sale of illegal drugs in the El’Pharm pharmacy chain.
The police reported that operatives of the Strategic Investigations Department, together with investigators of the Main Investigation Department, stopped the illegal activities of a group of people who sold medicines of smuggled origin. More than 50 medicines manufactured, in particular, in Russia, were seized from the suspects. The police response to Skhemy’s official request also stated that the medicines seized from El’Pharm were sent for examination and that the investigation was ongoing.
