Government to control medicine prices

/By AzerNews/

By Amina Nazarli

Medicine prices will be state regulated in Azerbaijan, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved new rules regulating drug prices.

Henceforth, drugs passing state registration in the Health Ministry will be regulated by the Tariff Council. Over 4,560 medicines passed the state registration in Azerbaijan in 2014.

Earlier, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev expressed his concerns about the prices of medicines at a Cabinet meeting on the results of the first quarter of 2015.

The president issued a special instruction to exercise stricter control over all pharmacies and to prevent price increases. "I can say that this drew more serious attention to this area, and we have revealed serious violations and imperfections here,” President Aliyev said.

He went on to add, that in some cases the prices of medicines inflated several times - even up to 10 times.

Drugs price regulation is based on the basic price. The Council will set prices for Azerbaijan on the basis of producers’ prices.

Every year, the Council will determine the list of countries, consisting of at least five countries, importing medicines.

Wholesale pharmaceutical enterprises and pharmacies will determine the perks to medicines prices in accordance with percentages set by the government.

Thus, wholesale pharmaceutical enterprises and pharmacies will be able to surcharge medicines prices with a value of up to 5 manats by 20 percent of the medicine cost.

The wholesale pharmaceutical enterprises will increase the cost of 5-20 manats drugs by 17 percent, while pharmacies have a right to make a surcharge by 20 percent.

When a medicine costs 20-50 manats: wholesale pharmaceutical enterprises can make a surcharge by 13 percent of cost, while pharmacies can add 20 percent to the initial value.

When a medicine costs 50-100 manats: wholesale pharmaceutical enterprises can make a surcharge of 7 percent on cost and pharmacies 13 percent.

Finally, for medicine costing more than 100 manats wholesale pharmaceutical enterprises will raise their prices on cost by 3 percent, and pharmacies 11 percent.

The Council will consider the prices regulation or changes to these prices once every quarter.

Should the national currency rate change against the US dollar by more than five percent and if it continues for more than two months, the prices of medicines as established by the Council will be reviewed.

Earlier, the government listed drugs that should be given to patients free of charge. The state budget, in accordance with the 10 state programs, allocated funds for the free provision of drugs to certain groups of patients, the Health Ministry said.