National Competition Agency Chairman notes pharma market changes, company investigations in 2021 report to Parliament

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.

Presenting the summary of 2021 in a sitting of the Committee on Human Rights and Civil Integration, Lekvinadze highlighted the notable actions and initiatives of his agency.

Despite the pandemic year, we completed the monitoring of the pharmaceutical market and issued 13 recommendations, the introduction of which should allow patients to make more choices at much lower expenses,” he said to MPs.

We [also] completed five investigations last year - identifying concerted action by economic agents, two cases of unfair competition, no restriction of competition by a Government agency, and one case of unfair competition," Lekvinadze also revealed.

According to his annual report, the Agency had imposed a financial fine of ₾58,000 (about $19,661/€18,734) on various companies in 2021. 

Lekvinadze also said a monitoring of the local fuel market was underway, adding the large companies occupying 60 percent of the market had resources to reduce fuel prices amid the recent increase in costs.