Though this is not allowed, doctors continue to prescribe drugs under their commercial names, not common international names to patients, while in some drugstores the list of medicines and medical devices of social importance is not updated and is not put in an accessible place. Such irregularities were identified by inspectors of the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices as a result of surprise inspections at national drugstores, IPN reports.

Officials of the Agency requested the managers of the public medical-sanitary institutions to take the required measures and penalize the doctors who issued inappropriate prescriptions.

The non-informing of people about the range of commercial names of medicines, their retail price and the diversity of positions for the same common international name is another irregularity identified in drugstores.

Also, the inspectors bought a drug that must be released based on prescription only. The druggist released it without prescription and this is a violation of the Ministry of Health’s order.

As a result of the surprise inspections, the inspectors formulated recommendations for removing the identified irregularities and drew up reports that will be remitted to court for imposing penalties. More than half of the planed drugstores had been inspected during two weeks. The surprise inspections will continue the coming weeks.