The two laws on pharmaceutical activity that were adopted by the MPs of the Party of Socialists and the platform “For Moldova”, which includes the MPs of the Shor Party, last December were declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court after examining the requisitions submitted by the MPs of the PPPDA, PDM and PAS, IPN reports.
The MPs asked the Court to determine the constitutionality of the two laws that regulate the activity of mobile drugstores and the delivery of drugs to the homes of persons with severe disabilities. They also referred to the provisions concerning the institution of the Catalogue of Prices of Compensated Drugs and the National Electronic Medicine Prescription System and the amendment of the methodology of calculating drug prices.
The Court held that if some of the provisions of the draft law imply the augmentation or reduction of budget costs or revenues, the bill can be adopted only after it is accepted by the Government. One of the two laws says the costs associated with the delivery of compensated drugs for persons with severe disabilities will be covered with money from the mandatory health insurance funds. The Court also held that the sale of drugs through mobile drugstores implies the payment of taxes from revenues obtained from the sale of drugs. This ultimately implies the augmentation or reduction of budget costs.
In the case of the second law, the Government will also have to allocate funds for implementing the National Electronic Medicine Prescription System, for instituting the Catalogue of Prices of Compensated Drugs, etc. Also, based on the electronic medical prescription, drugs will be compensated from the mandatory health insurance funds and this implies the allocation of money from the national public budget.
Also, the constitutional provisions stipulate a direct decisional dependence of Parliament on the Government whose preliminary consent to increasing or reducing the budget costs is an imperative conditions from which the legislative body cannot derogate.
The CC judgment is final, cannot be challenged, takes effect when it is adopted and is published in the Official Gazette.
