Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Visit to Health Care Ministry Expert Center of Pharmaceutical and Medical Technologies
RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan today visited the Expert Center of Pharmaceutical and Medical Technologies by the Ministry of Health Care to get a first-hand view of the activities of the organization.
The Prime Minister’s agenda featured a closed consultative meeting on pharmaceutical issues at which the head of government was briefed on the efforts made to address the existing problems.
The meeting was followed by a news conference during which Tigran Sargsyan said that the Center has a role to play in our region as the unique such agency available in South Caucasus. Its highly professional staff meeting all modern standards was said to be the Center’s key asset.
The Prime Minister then spoke about the existing bottlenecks: “First of all, the Center needs to be supplied with state-of-the-art equipment, and the staff needs training. Indeed, wages should be competitive as compared to other such entities operational on the domestic market. As you may see, premises are inadequate, and the government should think of a possible improvement.”
Asked about the recent rise in drug prices, the head of government advised that the commission on economic competition had discussed the question and is due to submit its findings to the government and the public-at-large: “Either we have growing concerns about the situation on the pharmaceuticals market, and the matter was high on the agenda of today’s consultative meeting. The number of major importers is increasing every day. Sometimes invoice prices are 2-3 times as much as the retail ones which means that the profit margin is too high on the market, and quite naturally the State has a say in these conditions,” the head of the government said in conclusion.
