In 2016, for the first time in Ukrainian history, money earmarked in the state budget for substitution maintenance therapy program for care of drug-dependent people.
The corresponding amendments to the 2016 budget program were made by joint order of the Health Ministry and the Finance Ministry No. 1128/888 of Oct. 21, 2016. On Nov. 23, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved all necessary documents to ensure that preparations for substitution maintenance therapy (SMT) would be procured with the budget money in 2016. The decisions on the switch from donor to state financing of SMT programs in Ukraine are unprecedented.
For 12 years, the SMT programs in Ukraine have been implemented with financial support of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and support on the part of UNAIDS, as well as through partnership with civil society organizations. Persons with chronic opioid dependence were able to participate in an SMT program based on methadone (a pill form or liquid methadone) or buprenorphine (tablets).