VISIT TO HEALTH CARE MINISTRY EXPERT CENTER OF PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

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.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress