State to reimburse up to 90% of medicine costs for patients with chronic illnesses by 2026
Patients in Georgia spending money on medication for chronic illnesses will have up to 90 percent of their expenses reimbursed in a state programme by 2026. Photo: HelloRF Zcool/Shutterstock.com
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Patients in Georgia spending money on medication for chronic illnesses will have up to 90 percent of their expenses reimbursed in a state programme by 2026, Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili said on Monday.
Azarashvili said the initiative was aimed at ensuring a "fair price" on the market, and would facilitate the reimbursement in combination with other initiatives, such as introduction of reference pricing on medical drugs starting next month.
The latter move, coming into force starting February 15, includes over 1,300 medicines for chronic and oncological illnesses in the first phase, with the system to be expanded to other categories later.
Under the initiative, pharmaceutical companies, importers, distributors and retailers of medical drugs will be prohibited from selling medicines at prices exceeding the references set by authorities.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday said the reference price mechanism, set to be introduced in a Government initiative across Georgia next month, would reduce the cost of medical drugs by an average of 40 percent.
Pharmaceutical companies, importers, distributors and retailers of medical drugs will be prohibited from selling medicines at prices exceeding the reference set by authorities starting February 15, the Georgian Government announced on Monday.
Georgian Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili on Friday said the reference prices set for medicines would come into effect on February 15 and all companies, importers, distributors or retailers would be required to establish a maximum upper limit accordingly.
Georgian health minister Zurab Azarashvili on Monday said financing of medications against chronic illnesses would be increased by ₾30 million ($10.68mln) in the 2023 state budget.
The upcoming introduction of the reference prices system on medical drugs across Georgia is expected to reduce average costs for products by 35 to 40 percent, Irakli Margvelashvili, the Chair of the Association of Pharmaceutical Companies Representatives, told local media on Tuesday.
The Georgian Health Ministry on Tuesday said large pharmacy companies “artificially” increasing prices on medicines not yet covered by reference price policy was “unacceptable”.
The Georgian National Competition Agency on Friday announced it had fined four pharmaceutical companies ₾53 million ($19 mln) for price-fixing on oncology medicines funded within the state programme.