PM, finance minister pledge “strict response” to reports of misleading labelling of affordable drugs by pharmacy

Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday said the government would ensure “strict response” to alleged cases of mislabelling of affordable drugs by pharmacies, following an “alarming information" of a drug store characterising lower-cost medicines as being of low quality to customers.

Speaking at the weekly government meeting, Garibashvili said the government had received information on employees at PSP, one of the pharmaceutical store networks across Georgia, presenting drugs on sale in a manner that referred to products manufactured in Turkey and imported to Georgia in a recent government-initiated move to effect a reduction of domestic prices as being of lower quality than their more expensive alternatives.

[The reports said that] when a customer enters the pharmacy and asks about a specific medical drug [...] the seller asks whether they want [high-]quality, expensive [medicines] or ‘low-quality’ Turkish medicines”, the PM said.

The government head called the alleged cases a “misleading of customers”, and said in case of repeated facts “very strict response” would follow the mischaracterisations, which he called “categorically unacceptable”.

In his turn, Georgian finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili said if the information was confirmed, the ministry of health would have a "strict response" to the alleged cases.

"When such information exists in relation to such a sensitive topic that concerns the price of drugs, it is very important that such a thing does not happen. This applies to every person who buys medicines in Georgia”, he noted.

“[W]hen competent individuals are trusted with giving certain advice to patients, it is important that this advice is in the best interest [of the latter]. Therefore, such information will naturally be verified”, Khutsishvili added, noting the reports had been “widely” noted and “recorded”.

The initiative for importing medical drugs from the Turkish market came last year from Garibashvili, who cited the considerable gap between the cost of the drugs produced using the Good Manufacturing Practices standard on the Turkish market in comparison with their cost in Georgia.

• Up to 200 Turkish-imported medicine types to be made available in Georgia
• Health Minister: import of medical drugs from Turkey has “significantly” decreased prices

Garibashvili said the ministry of health had been working "actively" to reduce the price of medical drugs on the Georgian market, noting Georgian citizens had saved up to ₾200 million ($73.4mln) annually since the Turkish-manufactured drugs had been imported.

The PM has said prices of some drugs have dropped from ₾200-300 ($73.40-$110) before the imports to ₾30-40-50 ($11-$14.68-$18.35). He also noted the parliament would discuss a new bill on introducing reference prices in the country, which would further reduce the costs by 40 percent.