OREANDA-NEWS. August 05, 2010. According to the amendments to legislation, approved by the Government, the Ministry of Health will form and administer it. The catalogue will contain information on prices for medicines both import and local. It will be made every year and revised as necessary when changing of prices.

Prices for medicines from producers will be published in every early year in leis, not in foreign currency that must exclude change of prices during the whole year. Permissions for medicines import will be issued only after inclusion of declared prices in the catalogue. Prices for medicines from producers will be in leis basing on exchange rate on the day of decision making. At the same time, the price for medicaments from producers should correspond to the average price for similar medicines in the neighbor countries. Particularly, on the medicines from CIS the prices of Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus will be taken for comparison, from EU – the prices of minimum three countries from the following list: Germany, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Czech, Slovakia, Lithuania and Poland.

The comparative analyses will be carried out taking into account the official foreign currency rate of the NBM against the lei. If the price from the producer doesn’t correspond to qualifying conditions and the suppliers don’t want to change it, the Ministry of Health won’t approve it. The prices will be fixed for 1 calendar year. It is stipulated that the price for medicines can be revised if the rate of lei against US dollar and Euro changes by more than 5%. Before 15th date of every month the National Bureau of Statistics and the Customs Service of Moldova will provide information on average prices from producers for local and import medicines.

Earlier, in order to stop the overpriced sale of medicines and establish the strict control of price formation the Government approved the special Regulations on prices for medicines. The document stipulates the obligatory registration by the Ministry of Health of prices of medicines producers and their inclusion in the National catalogue of prices. The taken measures are to reduce the prices for medicines in the country.

According to Prime Minister Vladimir Filat, the price for some medicines in Moldova is much higher than in the neighbor countries. Studying a range of medicines, sold in Moldova and Romania, he revealed a difference in price for some of them to 862%. Premier said though earlier it was telling a lot about overpriced medicines, their poor quality, knavish sale schemes, nothing was made in order to overcome the situation. According to Viorel Chetraru, Director of the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption, medicines trade is the most profitable business in Moldova, surpassing alcohol and tobacco business.