Georgian PM: ‘some companies put 300-400% price tags on drugs, this is unacceptable’
Irakli Garibashvili also noted that the Georgian National Competition Agency is working on the issue and will present an interim monitoring report in the coming days. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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“Some companies put a 300-400% price tag on drugs in Georgia, which is unacceptable”, said Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili earlier today.
We [the Georgian government] should make the right decision shortly as it affects the well-being of our population… Nothing like this is happening in any country”, said Garibashvili.
Irakli Garibashvili also noted that the Georgian National Competition Agency is working on the issue and will present an interim monitoring report in the coming days.
Responding to the issue, Georgian Deputy Health Minister Tamar Gabunia said mechanisms that could lead to improved access to drugs are regulated at the legislative level in many countries.
Gabunia also noted that the World Health Organisation has already started working on the issue with the Georgian Health Committee. She said this is an ongoing process which will need some time to finally determine what action the country will take in this regard.
Nineteen pharmacies have been found in the Georgian capital Tbilisi by the investigative service of Georgia’s Finance Ministry to be selling psychoactive drugs illegally.
The cost of medicines in Georgia will soon be 30 percent cheaper. The Government is about to implement "one of the biggest projects” in the healthcare sector to develop the country’s hospitals and pharmaceutical industry.
Georgian Health Minister David Sergeenko has stated that a certain category of Georgian citizens will receive ambulatory medicines free of charge or at a highly discounted price.
Georgian Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze has announced that pensioners and people with disabilities will enjoy 50 to 80 per cent discounts for chronic disease medications.
Acting Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze has announced that socially vulnerable pensioners will receive 500 GEL vouchers to purchase various prescribed medications. At the municipal government session held earlier today, Kaladze said the new program will cost 20 million GEL and have 40,000 beneficiaries.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said the government will ‘actively negotiate’ with pharmaceutical industry representatives in order to regulate medication prices. During a meeting earlier today with Georgian National Competition Agency head Irakli Lekvinadze, Garibashvili discussed an interim report on pharmaceutical market monitoring, asserting that the public is ‘very concerned’ about drug prices, and that regulatory measures need to become more ‘transparent.’
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili spoke at length about his cabinet’s plan to launch new social programmes to address unemployment and the cost of medications in the country during an interview on TV channel Imedi.
Georgia will import high-quality medicines from Turkey to effect a “significant” reduction of the cost of drugs on the Georgian market, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said in a government session on Monday.
The recent changes to the pharmaceutical market in Georgia to widen competition and improve customer options and antitrust investigations against companies were noted by Irakli Lekvinadze, the Chairman of the Georgian National Competition Agency, in his report on the past year to lawmakers on Thursday.