SK-Pharmacy Undergoes Management Shakeup Amid Scrutiny

Kazakhstan’s national pharmaceutical distributor, SK-Pharmacy, is once again at the center of controversy over procurement practices and budget losses totaling tens of billions of tenge, Orda.kz reports.

A leadership change at the company has just been confirmed: Nurlybek Asylbekov, formerly head of Shymkent’s health department, has taken over as Chair of the Board, replacing Yerken Zhakatay.

He held the position for less than a year.

The appointment coincides with renewed criticism of SK-Pharmacy. MP Bakytzhan Bazarbek revealed he had submitted four official complaints.

The findings included drug price markups of up to 600%, questionable procurement practices, single-supplier contracts, and delays in drug market access.

The company reportedly purchased medications hundreds of times above market value, wrote off 280 million tenge worth of drugs due to poor planning, and spent another 11.8 billion tenge on products that failed certification.

Asylbekov, while heading Shymkent’s health department, sued a patient over criticism of the healthcare system on social media. He now oversees an organization managing billions in public funds allocated for medicine procurement.

Orda.kz has previously reported on the opaque nature of drug registration in Kazakhstan, where regulatory advantages are allegedly granted to select pharmaceutical firms.

According to MP Askhat Aimagambetov, former employees of the National Center for Expertise were able to get drug approvals in just 25 days, while typical applicants waited five times longer.

This process often results in cheaper medications being sidelined in favor of costly alternatives. He also noted that 60% of purchases are funneled through a single supplier.

An earlier investigation by the National Security Committee exposed a scheme involving false deliveries: domestic firms, such as LLP Eleas, allegedly rebranded imported gloves, syringes, and other supplies as local products and sold them to SK-Pharmacy.

The question of accountability remains unresolved. Deputy Bazarbek insists that merely replacing leadership is insufficient given the scale of the financial losses.

Who was punished? At whose expense will the damage be compensated? (...) There are at least ten criminal cases here. You say that you only found out about this now. If it were not for the SAC, you would not have taken any further measures,
 Bakytzhan Bazarbek said.

Original Author: Ruslan Loginov