Ministry of Health Confirmed Purchases from Fake Factories

Health Minister Akmaral Alnazarova commented on a video by blogger Sanzhar Bokayev. In it, he shows a residential high-rise building in Almaty. According to open data, 15 Kazakhstani factories producing medical equipment are located there, Orda.kz reports.

The permits issued by the Ministry of Health indicate that they manufacture mammography and computer tomography equipment, which SK-Pharmacia purchased for more than 400 million tenge per unit. This equipment was manufactured in China and Korea.

The minister confirmed this fact, stating that she was aware of the situation.

The licenses for these fake factories were issued during the pandemic when the inspection authorities could not conduct an investigate.

We analyzed the complaints received, we had three official appeals to this company, including on these facts, two inspections were conducted - one off-premise and one on-site by the territorial committee for control of medical pharmaceutical activities. 26 registration certificates were identified that were registered for another production site, in connection with which they were suspended by order of the Ministry of Health, Akmaral Alnazarova said at a press conference in the government.

The company, in turn, filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Health. According to the minister, the legal proceedings are still ongoing.

But the registration certificates have been revoked, so the incident you are talking about, we partially confirm it, and the Ministry of Health has already completed the relevant work. As for the purchase, this is a purchase from previous years, and an official investigation has been launched within the walls of the Ministry of Health. Based on the results of the official investigation, a decision will be made and, most likely, the materials will be submitted to law enforcement agencies, she added.

The international study STADA Health Report 2024 showed a decrease in citizens' trust in Kazakhstan's healthcare system. 

The study included two thousand Kazakhstanis.

Incidentally, such a decrease has become a trend in other countries also included in the study: Uzbekistan, European countries — Great Britain and Germany — a total of 23 countries.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova