The Cabinet approved amendments and supplements to a decision of 2014 with the aim of increasing the population’s access to high-quality drugs at reasonable prices, IPN reports.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip said one of the objectives of the Government’s plan of action signed this March is to increase access to high-quality, safe and accessible medicines and medical devices by creating favorable conditions for business entities, including by diminishing the tariffs paid for the services provided by the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices.

The Premier noted that the procedure for authorizing/re-authorizing drugs registered in the European Economic Area or Switzerland, the U.S., Canada, Japan, and Australia was simplified and the tariffs in these cases will be by 25% lower than the previous ones. The tariffs for the registration and re-registration of medical devices will also be by 25% lower.

The executive also decided to set up a Center for Centralized Government Procurement in Health at the Ministry of Health. This body will deal with the deficiencies in the purchase of drugs, consumables and medical devices needed by the health system and will eliminate the fragmentation of duties between different institutions.

The creation of a public institution with centralized government procurement duties will also reduce the existing risks, will ensure transparency in the procurement process and will monitor the fulfillment of the public procurement contracts. This will become an efficient instrument for ensuring the supply of medicines of a high quality and at the lowest prices to health facilities.