The Medicines and Medical Devices Agency approves and registers the producer price of medicines, but cannot control the formation of wholesale and retail prices. Following reports about the rise in drug prices, the institution said that it does not possess information about the medicines whose prices were raised and about the category of which these form part, IPN reports.
According to the Agency, in the case of authorized medicines included in the State Nomenclature, with the price approved in accordance with the legal provisions and regulated up to the issuing stage, a considerable rise is not possible. Moreover, the producer prices are set for a period of a year. The prices of food supplements, which are often mixed up with medicines, are not regulated by the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency.
Most of the medicines for cardiovascular diseases were included in the List of Compensated Drugs and those entitled to such medicines need to go to the family doctor to be issued with prescriptions for partially or fully compensated drugs.
“The reality shows that the prices in national currency deviate owing to the fluctuation of the exchange rate that undergoes essential changes in a relatively short period of time at a time when most of the medicines on the pharmaceutical market of the Republic of Moldova are imported. The exchange rate fluctuates throughout the year, not only in the given period. This factor is felt by the consumers in all the areas, including in the pharmaceutical sector,” the Agency noted in a press release.
