OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2013. Came into force the Order of the Ministry of Health Care on the medicine-prescribing procedures that require specifying international non-proprietary names in the prescription forms.

Before the Order came into effect, the forms and filling-in instructions were regulated under the Order of the Ministry of Health Care that allowed prescribing medicines under their trade names.

In practice mass prescriptions on medicines under their trade names resulted in unfair engagements between medical doctors and pharmaceutical companies, and increased the costs incurred by the population that was forced to buy the most expensive of substitute drugs.

The new Order of the Ministry of Health Care is issued to execute the Action Plan for developing competition on certain markets, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation. It will guarantee that medical doctors comply with the relevant treatment standards and ensure equal conditions for producers of competing medicines.

“The new requirement is designed to eliminate possibility to prescribe certain drug to patients only because a doctor has arrangements with a pharmaceutical company, which will give patients a better choice and make drugs more affordable for them. At the same time the order does not deprive doctors of the right to determine the best individual treatment for a patient, particularly, in the incidents of drug intolerance”, commented the Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophey Nizhegorodtsev.