From September, a number of drugs in Georgia will no longer be sold over the counter without a prescription.
An amendment to the Drugs and Pharmaceutical Activities Law will come into effect on September 1. From then, pharmacies will be forbidden to sell Group II drugs without prescriptions.
Group II drugs include antibiotics, medicines used for cardiac-vascular diseases, as well as hormonal, endocrine and oncology products.
The Ministry of Health said the reason behind the law change was to reduce current high use of easily accessed prescription drugs for self-treatment and to reduce the level of instances of addictions to pharmacy medicines, primarily inappropriate use of Group II pharmaceutical products and use of them for unlawful drug abuse.
The Ministry of Health is conducting a pilot program to determine the viability of establishing a prescription institute in Georgia. About 120 medical and pharmaceutical establishments in Tbilisi and other regions of Georgia are involved in the program.
A meeting is expected to be held today at the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention for representatives of the institutions involved in the pilot program.
According to the Health Ministry, the meeting aimed to prepare those involved in the program, and the wider Georgian population, about the law change which is about to come into force.