“Darnitsa lost half of its sales and laid off more than a thousand people
28 September 10:25
In 2025, Darnitsa stopped production twice – for 3 weeks in March and for 6 weeks in June and August. This led to the layoff of more than 1000 employees and a loss of 50% of sales, Anatoliy Amelin said on Facebook, according to
“The consequences for the pharmaceutical company were devastating. “Darnitsa stopped production twice in 2025 – for a total of 9 weeks,” Anatoliy Amelin said.
In addition to staff reductions, the company lost its market position. “In June 2025, the plant lost 30% of its sales compared to 2024, and by August the decline reached 50%,” he said.
“Because of this, the pharmaceutical company has dropped from second to fourth place among the largest drug manufacturers in Ukraine,” the expert summarized.
The reasons for this situation lie in the conflict in the pharmaceutical market between pharmaceutical manufacturers and monopolists – wholesalers and pharmacy chains.
According to Amelin, this is a conflict between Darnitsa, once the second largest drug manufacturer, and the five (!) largest pharmacy chains in the country, “where corporate (monetary) interests are put above the needs of patients in wartime.”
The conflict
The root of the conflict lies in the changes in the regulation of the pharmaceutical market initiated by the government to reduce drug prices.
on February 12, 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council on additional measures to ensure the availability of medicines, which provided for a 30% reduction in prices for the top 100 drugs and a ban on marketing payments between manufacturers and pharmacies.
However, even before these measures formally came into force, Darnitsa raised the prices of its drugs by 120% at the end of 2024, which became a catalyst for the conflict.
Starting from March 1, 2025, the five largest pharmacy chains – ANC, Podorozhnyk, Pharmacy 9-1-1, Wish You Well and Dobroho dnia – have drastically reduced purchases of Darnitsa’s products, controlling about 70% of the retail pharmaceutical market.
As reported by
