Today Healthcare Minister Arsen Torosyan, presenting the amendments to the law “On Drugs”, said that it was postponed until July 1, 2019, but this does not apply to antibiotics and psychotropic drugs that would be sold again by prescriptions in pharmacies.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan responded: “This one year should be the essense of practicly presentimg the programme to the society and people should be convinced that this mechanism should be used in their favor rather than against them. If it turns out that this law is against the people, then we will put it down, if the opposite, then we will invest it. We cannot find a solution to a problem by postponing it all the time.”

The minister also added that the amended version of the law would be submitted sooner than expected – they would not wait for one year and would present all the issues. “This is the 2nd postponement, since it was invested last time too quickly.”

“It is necessary to conduct an active dialogue with the mass media and the public on this issue, and the solutions should be not only on paper, but also an applied model should exist. The law should not come into force and  after we understand that there are such problems,” said Nikol Pashinyan.

Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said in his turn: “The large number of people who had appealed to us before were due to these changes in the law. People were in panic due to polyclinics not to work on weekends, medicine not to be sold without prescriptions. We will integrate our efforts into informing and will work together.”