Health Minister says oncological, other drugs on market under “daily” monitoring
Georgian Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili on Monday said the Ministry was ensuring “daily” monitoring of oncological and other medical drugs in the domestic pharmaceutical market. Photo: Ministry of Health
Tweet 
Share
Georgian Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili on Monday said the Ministry was ensuring “daily” monitoring of oncological and other medical drugs in the domestic pharmaceutical market, following the National Competition Agency’s fining of pharmacy networks last month for price-fixing.
The Minister was speaking after the companies were fined ₾53 million ($19.71mln) for conspiring to keep artificially inflated prices on oncology medicines funded within the state programme - a decision they could appeal in court.
He noted “special bases” had been created for the purpose of monitoring the ongoing prices of the drugs.
[T]he fact is quite clear [of] concerted actions of these companies against our country to pay much more money from the budget based on artificially increased prices”, he said.
Azarashvili added the violations meant consumers had been “left without medicines”, as the “three and four times” increased prices had resulted in "premature expenditure” of limited state funds designated for the medicines.
He said he hoped the “strict response” from the authorities would mean violations of the kind would not be repeated, and added provision of oncological medicines had begun to be “gradually taken over” by the state from this year.
The Ministry of Health of Georgia has set new standards for dental clinics, tightening rules for launch and operation of venues across the country.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Agency of Georgia on Monday said it had received 578 complaints on violations of consumer rights between November 2022 and January 2024 and opened cases on 340 of the submissions.
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.
Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili on Thursday said reference prices on medical drugs would be applied to additional 2,000 medicines in Georgia, starting next year.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Agency of Georgia on Tuesday announced it had fined three companies ₾1.6 million ($595,954) for an arrangement that granted exclusive rights to selling cinema tickets online in violation of competition law.
A “modern, international-standard” state clinic will be built on the base of the Tbilisi-based Central University Clinic, also known as the Republican Hospital, the Government Administration announced on Monday.
Zurab Azarashvili, the candidate for the Minister of Health of Georgia, on Monday said the body would start financing early testing for patients with oncological illnesses “in the near future”.
The Ministry of Health on Wednesday said 10 centres for dialysis had been launched across Georgia this year to bring the service closer to patients.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Parliamentary Majority Leader Mamuka Mdinaradze, on Friday met medical staff of Tbilisi-based Central University Clinic, also known as the Republican Hospital, to discuss the planned demolition of the facility and its replacement with a new clinic.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Tuesday said the “rapid growth” of the domestic healthcare sector had led to “cartel deals” and “flawed processes” between pharmacy companies in the country, in comments to cases highlighted by the Health Ministry and confirmed by the Competition Agency.