Medicine prices can be checked by mobile phones
By Nigar Orujova
Medicine prices can now be followed by mobile phones and tablets in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy and Industry announced.
The country started regulating the prices of medicines from September 15. A list of medicines is constantly enlarging. Up until now, the Tariff Council has approved the prices of over 3,500 kinds of medicines.
The list of medicines, information on medicine prices, their mixture, and producing country can be downloaded to the mobile phones and tablets.
The list with adjusted prices has been posted in PDF format in the “Pharmaceuticals” section of the website of the Tariff Council.
In the future, the list will be updated after prices for another bunch of medicines approved.
The price-regulating process is expected to be completed by mid 2016, said Abbas Aliyev, spokesman for the Economy and Industry Ministry.
Aliyev noted that to date the Tariff Council have adjusted wholesale and retail sale prices of 3,540 medicines taking into account the trade name, active ingredients, dosage, pharmaceutical form, commercial package and its quantity, and manufacture-country.
“The next 1,258 medicine names will go on sale at newly approved prices from December 21. Thus, 3,540 items of medicines will be sold at new prices.”
Compared with the current price, the price of 46 percent of medicines decreased more than two times, 24 percent – more than three times. In general, prices have fallen for 95 percent of all the medicines.
Establishing the single price for medicines is aimed at improving the level of medical services provided to the population and combating price gouging.
Currently, 57 percent of medicines registered in Azerbaijan are produced in Europe, 26 percent in the CIS countries, including 12 percent made in Russia. A small share of medicines is produced in Asian countries.
The country has registered more than 4,500 brands of more than 20,000 types of medicine. The number of cost-controlled pharmaceuticals will increase in the future.
All medicines imported to Azerbaijan are examined before reaching pharmacies and hospitals. The country bans the import of medicines into the country without a license, permission, or other relevant documents.
Earlier, Russia and Iran have offered to produce medicines in Azerbaijan.
Moreover, Azerbaijan plans to create its own enterprises that will produce medicines, to free the sector from dependence on import.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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