2022-04-11
Only generic medication will be prescribed from today - April 11, 2022. I wish to explain the information for our citizens and the Minister of Health will further elaborate on the initiative. From today onwards, medical doctors will be obliged to prescribe only generic medication, i.e. with an indication of an international trademark name rather than specific brand name of the producers. It means that pharmacists will be offering 3 cheapest medications from the approved list of generic treatments. It will be the obligation of the pharmacist. After the doctor prescribes a treatment, pharmacists will be obliged to offer 3 cheapest medications to customers. Citizens of Georgia will ultimately decide which one to buy. That is why, it is our expectation that with an introduction of generic prescriptions, risks stemming from doctors - I am not speaking about all of them, of course - in the form of artificial price increase will be prevented by abolishing current problems. We need to acknowledge that medical doctors and pharmacists may be nowadays lobbying individual brands, companies or manufacturers through shadow marketing. This practice will be practically eradicated. This problem will be eventually addressed. It was announced by Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia at the Executive Government Meeting today.
According to the Head of Government of Georgia, obligation to prescribe generic medication is practiced in every normal, civilized state.
"This is our expectation and we believe that medication will be offered in an ethical manner to our consumers, our citizens. The Minister of Health has been actively cooperating with the respective Parliamentary Committee, stakeholders and individual experts. It has all been cleared and I strongly hope that this reform will be most successful and - what is most important - our people will greatly benefit and out-of-pocket payments will be reduced. We received vast information on the costs incurred by the general public on medication, totaling to 300, 400 or 500 GEL a month. Expenditures have not only been halved, but reduced even further by 60, 70 or even 80% and I am confident that it is a truly noble effort and I wish to once again express gratitude to the Minister of Health and everybody else engaged in the process. I wish to explain here to our citizens that the obligation of prescribing generic medication is practiced in every normal, civilized state of Europe, United States and practically everywhere. I have seen it myself and probably you have seen and had cases when buying pills in Europe and the US. Albeit you choose from several options between expensive, cheap or less cheap and so on" added the Prime Minister of Georgia.
As the Head of Government of Georgia noted, this decision will assist the already launched process, as medication is being imported from Turkey and thus almost 200 treatments are offered at prices that are 60 or 70 percent cheaper. Situation on the pharmaceutical market is changing in a radical manner, as a result.
"You are well aware that several months ago, myself and the Minister of health launched a most interesting process - a reform - and the first round of it was related to the price reduction on medication. You may well remember that one of the main challenges of our citizens was and remains to be the high prices on medication. Nevertheless, it is almost dealt with. This issue has been addressed. You may remember that when we started to talk about it, large groups - and I am not referring to all of the importers and producers of medication - were critical about the initiative. We heard unfair criticism, even skepticism and a lot of opponents found it unacceptable. They thought that it was impossible, but we made rather effective steps towards this end and witnessed a price reduction on medication very soon as we gained exposure to the Turkish market - major producer of rather high quality and cheap medication - and prices dropped on imported pills by 60 or 70 percent. Almost 200 medical treatments in high demand are now affordable. That was our focus, otherwise more than 10 000 medications are registered in our system, but we aimed to make those in high demand affordable and concentrated on this goal. That is why hundreds of medications are accessible currently to our citizens much cheaper - at prices that are 60 or 70 percent cheaper than before.
Also, I wish to remind our population that every service provider - medical institution and doctor - is obliged to prescribe medication of the second group only electronically from March 1 nation-wide with an aim of making high-quality medication affordable. It is also very important, of course and related to the anticipated maintenance of low prices. Also, our goal is to make the overall pharmaceutical industry most open, transparent, competitive and fairly priced" noted the Prime Minister of Georgia.
In addition, psychotropic and equalized medication will no longer be prescribed in a hard copy, but only electronically. In the opinion of the Prime Minister of Georgia, this novelty will significantly restrict the inappropriate use of psychotropic medication in the country.
"You may remember that several - some 2 months - ago, I instructed the Minister of Health to tighten the procedures of prescribing psychotropic and equalized medication, thereby restricting the circulation of such substances. It is related to the drug addiction, unhealthy life-style and plenty of other misfortunes that are ultimately reflected on our future generation. That is why we were and are obliged to regulate the matter. From today onwards, prescription of medication in this group will no longer be issued in a hard copy and only electronic prescriptions will be released. This will get regulated as well. Now, what is the essence of this novelty? It will significantly restrict the unintended use of psychotropic medication by people consuming them to harm their health, existence and lifestyle, thereby deteriorating the drug use in the country. Psychotropic medication is prohibited without a prescription of a medical doctor. Any treatment should be taken at the advice of a doctor and unintended use or self-treatment - if this malpractice can be perceived as a self-treatment - will not lead to dreadful consequences. Circulation of psychotropic medication falls under a tightened control in Georgia. It is prohibited to consume them without a prescription issued by a doctor, though it was somewhat hard to control the process when prescriptions existed in hard copies. That is exactly why the electronic form was institutionalized to enable the control of issuing doctors and servicing pharmacies. It will also help us a lot to ensure transparency of the process and monitor the situation at large. Ultimately, our aim should be a complete digitalization of their circulation from the moment of their import all the way to the patient. We will be simplifying the monitoring of the entire chain of supply, along with the supervision and transparency to make sure that the state gets control over the entire process of their circulation in the country. That has been dealt with and this issue will get addressed from today" noted the Prime Minister of Georgia.
The Head of Government of Georgia also commented on the current epidemic situation in the country and declared that COVID-19 is practically defeated in the country as a result of a proper management of the process by the Coordination Council.
"I wish to bring joy to our citizens by declaring an almost practical victory over COVID-19, as such. It is so, at least today. This is the current situation. For instance, 107 cases were reported today, which is a significantly reduced and remarkable indicator. Herewith, I wish to remind sceptics that were criticizing my statements 2 months ago that if they remember well when Omicron started to circulate and take over other strains, we removed Green Passports as they were losing the original sense. Back then, some "genius" experts criticized us, doubting our intentions and so on. Soon enough and in fact in a couple of months, we all saw that this process was managed well by the Minister, Government and Coordination Council and that is why everything got stabilized. In terms of overall management of the system, there was no challenge and let me repeat that as few as 100 cases were reported today. It practically means that this problem - this crisis - is over, vanished. You may well be aware that we removed a number of restrictions and eased the regulations. Uniform wearing of facemasks is no longer required outdoors and our citizens will enjoy greater freedom towards this end. Stress and pressure will vanish, of course" concluded Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia.
Press Service of the Government Administration