Minister: Groundless growth of medical drug prices was noticed in Armenia for the last two years

• Friday, October 5, 17:31

 Armenia's Health Minister, Derenik Dumanyan, confessed at today's press-conference that groundless growth of medical drug prices was noticed in Armenia for the last two years.

He said that investigation showed that over that period of time producers of medical drugs did not much increase the price of their production, while medical drugs prices grew much in chemists shops. He recalled that in spring 2011 the government adopted a decision to import medical drugs from the third world countries, but even this did not result in dropping of their prices in Armenia, as the  state does not interfere in the price formation and the importing
companies themselves fix prices.

"There are numerous unregistered drugs. Many drug companies refuse to register their medication in Armenia because this demands additional time, [and] they have to submit documents. And [therefore] our importers bring those drugs and sell them as unregistered medication," he said and added that the strictest quality control is indispensable from the moment of importing. "The usefulness of each drug that enters the country is determined at the
border. But There is a lack of full control mechanisms in this sector," Derenik Dumanyan said.

To recall, as a result of audit in medical establishments of Armenia held by the State Commission for Protection of Economic Competition (SCPEC), the violations exceeding 1.5 bln drams were revealed. The final results of the second stage of the audit were presented over today's session of the SCPEC.
The total of 134 hospitals and about 300 companies, dealing with export, production and sale of pharmaceuticals, were examined during the second stage of audit by SCPEC. It was cleared out that delivery of pharmaceuticals in 100 out of 134 hospitals was implemented without holding of tenders. This resulted in growth of price for pharmaceuticals almost threefold. For instance, several hospitals purchased "Ceftriaxone" for 850 drams, although its true price is 190 drams. Other violations were also fixed.