Prices on medicines to be unified

Deputies of the National Assembly’s House of Representatives have recently adopted in their first reading a list of amendments to the Law on Medicines.

From now on, tabs and potions would be prescribed not only by doctors but also nurses, with their sales arranged both at pharmacies and thematic exhibitions. At present, prices on medicines vary at different pharmacies but, in line with a draft law, the notion of a ‘selling cost’ is introduced. This price is fixed by a producer on registering a medicine at the Centre of Medicine Expertise and Registration. As a result, a single price policy is planned and, in the future, a unified retail and wholesale margin would be established.

The Deputy Chair of the Standing Committee on Health Protection, Physical Culture, Family and Youth Policy — Yelena Shamal — is convinced that the proposed novelty would cut prices on medicines, while ensuring their wider accessibility for people. In addition, a procedure of medicines’ state registration would be simplified.

Deputy Victor Valyushitsky wondered whether these new amendments wouldn’t result in less control over medicines’ turnover but Health Protection Minister Vasily Zharko explained, “Control will never be lost: each new batch is subject to an obligatory laboratory examination. Last year, we tested 115,000 batches and rejected 125 of them (those included 17 domestic and 108 foreign drugs). In the recent decade, no faked medicines were imported to our country.”