In Kazakhstan, the diabetes drug Viktosa will be replaced with another medication, and blood glucose test strips are not being removed from the list of free supplies. Nurlybek Asylbekov, chairman of the board of SK-Pharmacy, made the statement at a government briefing while responding to complaints from Kazakh citizens, infohub.kz reports.
A journalist at the briefing noted that citizens on social media claim that Viktosa and blood glucose test strips have been excluded from the list of free medicines.
"On the Viktosa issue. Our list is constantly being improved. That is, innovative drugs are coming in, and today there are 50 medicines on the list of drugs provided for diabetes. And so Viktosa is being replaced by another drug. As for test strips, of course they are not being removed (from the free list — author's note). Today we purchase test strips and supply them. Test strips are available," Nurlybek Asylbekov said.
Journalists pointed out that the situation appears strange: Kazakh citizens complain that test strips are not being issued, while SK-Pharmacy says otherwise.
"At the beginning of this year, as you know, there was the introduction of VAT and other issues. Precisely on this issue, we had, let's say, slight shortfalls in supply at the start of the year. But all these issues have been resolved. And today we have additionally purchased test strips, and all regions and patients are supplied," the head of SK-Pharmacy responded.
He added that if test strips are unavailable, Kazakh citizens can contact the SK-Pharmacy call center or write to its Telegram bot.