Gov’t to Tighten Regulations for Marketing of Pharmaceuticals and Prescriptions
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, December 13
(TBILISI) —The Georgian government plans to tighten its existing regulations on the marketing of pharmaceuticals and prescriptions from early next year.
The Parliament’s Health Committee prepared an action plan for 2017-2030, that aims to cut the use of generic medicines, as well as the high cost of prescriptions, and curb aggressive marketing tactics.
Health Committee chair Akaki Zoidze says the plan also envisages the launch of e-prescriptions.
“One of the main reasons for prescribing some prescriptions is the financial incentive for that doctors have from some pharmaceutical companies. E- prescriptions will eliminate this wide-spread problem,” Zoidze added, saying a pilot program of e- prescriptions is already underway in the capital Tbilisi.
E-prescriptions will be mandatory in Tbilisi from 2018.
“The program is expected to be introduced throughout the whole of Georgia in 3-4 years. We first need to train pharmacists, doctors and other program participants about how the system works,” said Zoidze.
“We will cap prices on 300-400 different kinds of drugs to avoid a major fluctuation of the prices. The socially vulnerable people will get some benefits on medicines, as usual,” Zoidze said.
The idea of e-prescriptions was first raised in 2014. Since then, the government has stated on several occasions that a new European standard system would be implemented across the whole of the country. However, only a few clinics and pharmacies are currently following the practice.
