OBJECTIVES: to assess knowledge of nanomedicines among pharmacists in Ukraine and to outline the directions of further research.

METHODS: Survey was conducted in April, 2019 in the form of questionnaire that was sent to pharmacists in West region, Ukraine. Questionnaire consisted of introduction part (n=6) and specific questions on nanomedicines (n=14). Due to the preliminary character of the research, a total of 40 pharmacists took part in this study.

RESULTS: The majority of voluntary respondents had higher pharmaceutical education (80%) and professional experience of more than 10 years (60%), most of them worked in pharmacies of LLC ownership (92.5%). Respondents assessed their knowledge of nanomedicines in 4 points from 10. 65% of pharmacists did not know about the safety of nanomedicines, the rest were sure about safety of those preparatios. 60% did not know about the effectiveness of nanomedicines and the same number of survey participants thought that nanomedicine drugs had another mechanism of action than traditional drugs. 97.5% of respondents would like to get more information about nanomedicines. 72.5% of survey participants thought that there is a need to implement normative documents for regulating nanomedicines in Ukraine and to add the information on active ingredients in nanosizes into the instruction for medical use of nanomedicines.

CONCLUSIONS: The answers on questionnaire showed that knowledge level of nanomedicines among the Ukrainian pharmacists even with long professional experience is quite limited and pharmacists themselves understood this. This may be caused by the lack of normative regulation of nanomedicines in Ukraine. Therefore, educational programs for pharmacists are needed to raise awareness about the mechanisms of action, effectiveness and safety of nanopreparations. Normative regulation of nanomedicines in Ukraine also should be developed.