The doctors will be allowed to prescribe not more than three drugs to patients, except for emergencies, Minister of Health Andrei Usatyi said after a meeting centering on the pharmaceutical activity in the country, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We will have to work with the entire health system so as to implement the treatment protocols that exclude the prescription of an excessive number of medicines. We will monitor the process by instituting units of pharmacologists who will supervise how the drugs are prescribed,” said the minister. The doctors who will not obey this provision will be penalized. “The prescription of more drugs is not only harmful. It makes the people bear a financial burden. That’s why we will monitor the process strictly,” said Andrei Usatyi. The introduction of the national therapeutic form will be the next stage. It will divide the medicines by importance, into basic, essential and secondary ones. Asked if the doctors prescribe more drugs because they are incompetent or because they pursue commercial interests, the minister said both of the reasons are possible, but it is important to eliminate such practices. In another development, Andrei Usatyi said that the prices of drugs in 2011 fell by 3%. This year the Ministry plans to obtain a new 3% decrease in the prices of medicines. “The problems encountered in the area are known and the objective is to set real prices and sell medicines of a high quality to the population. We will continue to put things in the given sector in order,” said Prime Minister Vlad Filat. He instructed the persons in charge to work out within a month a roadmap as regards the steps that will be taken in the pharmaceutical sector, with definite tasks for every division.