Prices decreased by 60-70 % on More than 200 medicines, PM Says
By Khatia Bzhalava
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
The prices of about 200 medicines on the local market have decreased by 60-70 percent due to the launch of the Government initiative to import medications from Turkey, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced on Monday.
According to him, one of the main challenges of the citizens was the high medication prices, however, he noted that this issue is ‘almost dealt with’ as almost 200 medical treatments in high demand are now affordable.
“Our goal is to make the overall pharmaceutical industry most open, transparent, competitive, and fairly priced,” noted the Prime Minister of Georgia.
Garibashvili also said that starting Monday, prescribing psychotropic medications would only be permitted in digital form, noting the step would “significantly restrict” misuse of such drugs. According to him, the digital prescription would insure the better monitoring of both pharmaceutical institutions and the doctors prescribing the drugs, and enable the government to ensure transparency of the process.
The PM also announced that starting Monday, medical doctors will be obliged to prescribe only generic medication, without specifying a brand of the drug. According to this reform, after the doctor prescribes a treatment, pharmacists will be obliged to offer the 3 cheapest medications from the approved list of generic treatments to customers.
As PM noted, with the introduction of generic prescriptions, the practice of doctors and pharmacists lobbying individual brands, companies, or manufacturers through shadow marketing will be eradicated. This reform will also prevent artificial price increases of medicines. According to Garibashvili, the obligation to prescribe generic medication is practiced in every normal, civilized state.
