OREANDA-NEWS. September 18, 2012. The Working Group for Studying Competition Problems in the Pharmaceutical Sector and the Headquarters for Joint Investigations of Antimonopoly Violations in the CIS Member-States had a meeting in Kazan, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

Representatives of 18 countries took part in the meeting. The initiative for establishing the Working Group was put forward by Russia’s and Italy’s competition authorities. The meeting emphasized importance of joint efforts in this socially important field.

The parties agreed that in the near future a number of key questions should be subject to discussion. One of such questions, in particular, will be developing common approaches to the market analysis procedures. Pharmaceutical markets have a clear specifics; they are characterized by various forms of national government regulation. At the same time, transnational corporations operate on this markets and it is difficult to control such companies by a particular antimonopoly body.

The Working Group will discuss the best enforcement practices for investigating cases on violating the antimonopoly law; control over large mergers and acquisitions; reforms of the systems of government regulation designed to introduce pro-competitive and transparent mechanisms of industry activities, balancing industry, antimonopoly and criminal laws; improving the procedures for state procurement of medicines; removing unacceptable patent restrictions; stimulating production and consumption of generic drugs.

In the nearest two weeks the antimonopoly bodies of Russia and Italy will formulate a list of specific questions that need special discussions, and then the schedule of further joint work will be outlined.

“All meeting participants expect that the recommendations will considerably expand the choice of medicines for the population, reduce drug prices and ultimately protect life and health of our people”, said Deputy Head of FAS, Anatoly Golomolzin.

He pointed out that numerous industry lobbyists, who the antimonopoly bodies oppose, often claim that competition creates threats for people’s health, but the antimonopoly officers believe that competition and health are inseparable.