Deputy Criticizes Health Ministry Over Medicinal Pricing, Cites 'Pharmaceutical Mafia'

Deputy Marat Bashimov has accused Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Health of stepping back from its responsibility to oversee drug procurement. According to him, a “pharmaceutical mafia” now controls the system, Orda.kz reports.

The Majilis reviewed the findings of a Supreme Audit Chamber inspection of the Ministry. The audit revealed billions of tenge in losses, disruptions in medicine supply, and inflated drug prices.

Bashimov strongly criticized the Ministry for a lack of transparency in drug pricing, citing major discrepancies between state procurement prices and retail market prices. SK-Pharmacy, the state procurement operator, reportedly purchased certain medicines for prices several times higher than those found in pharmacies.

As an example, Bashimov pointed to the drug Stellar. While its market price is 137,500 tenge per unit, the government paid one million tenge for each. He estimated that the total budgetary loss from overpaying for just the 15 most expensive drugs in 2024 could reach 36 billion tenge.

Just think about it, esteemed deputies — this is outrageous. It raises immediate questions of corruption, price gouging, and all the hallmarks of a so-called pharmaceutical mafia. A pharmaceutical organized crime group. We’ve been unable to bring order to this area for years,Bashimov said, stressing that ensuring affordable and reliable drug supply is a core responsibility of the Health Ministry. 

The Ministry of Health, however, disputes the findings. Vice Minister Ardak Amangeldiyev rejected the Audit Chamber’s conclusions, saying a pre-trial claim has already been filed to challenge the report.

We formally challenged the results and submitted a pre-trial claim to the Supreme Audit Chamber on Monday. Here is a comparative analysis that was done, which you are now relying on: you compared officially supplied medicines — those delivered with full documentation and certificates of origin to medical institutions — with drugs that may have been found on some online pharmacy. These price comparisons were made without any actual purchases, without verifying the facts, and in clear violation of audit rules and procedures. In short, the comparison itself was completely unreliable. Ardak Amangeldiev said.  

The Ministry maintains that drugs procured for hospitals go through rigorous certification and cannot be compared to products not authorized for clinical use. Officials insist the audit’s conclusions are inaccurate, and the alleged 36 billion tenge in damages is unsubstantiated.

Original Author: Ilya Astakhov