Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

State regulation will lead to a significant drop in prescription drug costs according to a June 11 interview with Tariff Council Secretary Ilkin Majidov.

“The medicine prices will be the same in all pharmacies. That’s why people do not have to look for the cheapest pharmacies. New regulation will lead to reduction of health care costs,” he said.

Previously, the Cabinet of Ministers had approved new rules to regulate and control costs from increasing. In accordance with these rules, drugs registered under the Ministry of Health should be regulated by the Tariff Council.

Currently, some 4,500 medicines have been granted Ministry of Health approval in Azerbaijan, the secretary stressed.

Majidov said that medicine importers should direct inquiries to the Health Ministry. In the case of a new drug appeal, the ministry will conduct an investigation of the drug. Those drugs that pass state registration will be included in the registered list and thus be granted approval for import.

Importers should also send their request to the Tariff Council for pricing approval.

Drug pricing regulation is based on a standard price, set by the Council, which will consider domestic drug prices in 10 importing countries: Turkey, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovenia. The Council selects the lowest domestic price for the drug in these countries.

The Council will reevaluate drug prices once every quarter.

Should the national currency rate change against the US dollar by more than five percent and if it continues for more than two months, the prices of medicines as established by the Council will be reviewed.

Those pharmacies that choose to inflate the cost of medicine will be fined up to 50,000 manats ($48,036), said Zahid Isayev, the head of the State Service for Antimonopoly Policy and Consumer Protection under the Ministry of Economy and Industry.

“We have already prepared offers for amending to the Code of Administrative Offences. Now discussions on this issue is underway,” he said.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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