Earlier measures designed to prevent the sale of medicines and medical products at inflated retail prices remain ineffective, and the opportunities to secure compliance with established order for state regulation of prices for socially important drugs are underutilized. Therefore, Uzbekistan’s government has taken cardinal steps that will help bring order into the pharmaceuticals market.
Local authorities shall provide licenses for the retail sale of medicines, and pharmacies deprived of those permits as well as their employees will be included in a special registry. It is stipulated in the Decree of the President of the Republiс of Uzbekistan, signed 14 February 2017, on measures to further improve the order of retail of medicines and medical products, pharmaceutical licensing activities.
Under the Decree, starting from April 1, licensing the types of pharmaceutical activities related to retail sale of drugs and medical products will be conducted by the Council of Ministers of Karakalpakstan, regional and Tashkent city hokimiyats (administrations).
A registry is to be formed in Uzbekistan containing postal addresses and names of employees of pharmacies whose licenses have been terminated as a result of detected breaches of the law, including a gross violation of the pricing order of medicines and medical goods. The data entered in the registry shall be eliminated in three years.
Together with the drug or medical devices the buyer, along with the receipt, shall be given a commodity check (receipt) which specifies the name of the drug or medical devices with identification information (name, dosage, packaging, number), the data of the person selling the product, date of retail and price.
Commodity and cash receipts obtained from the results of the check purchase or controlled acquisitions conducted by law enforcement agencies in accordance with legislation that prove the fact of realization of a drug or medical products in violation of the pricing procedure, can be one of the reasons for the suspension or termination of the license effect of the pharmaceutical institution.
The State Committee on privatization, de-monopolization and competition development and the Department for combating tax, currency crimes and legalization of criminal income under the Prosecutor General were instructed to provide a “systemic control over the observance of the established order for the state price regulation of retail organizations selling drugs and medical devices”.
Important
This week, fixed prices for imported socially significant medicines and medical products have been approved in Uzbekistan. The list is available on the website of the State Committee on Privatization, Demonopolization and Promotion of Competition. Earlier, the government had approved a similar list of socially important drugs and medical goods of Uzbek production.
