About 1,000 drugs get cheaper in drugstores

Approximately 1,000 types of drugs have got cheaper in drugstores since January 1, when the National Catalogue of Drug Prices came into force. Officials of the Ministry of Health say some of the expensive medications are now by up to 300 lei cheaper, while the cheap drugs – by up to several lei cheaper, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on Tuesday, Maria Cojocaru-Toma, the head of the Medication Agency, said all the pharmaceutical companies are now reinventorying their stores. Among the cheaper drugs are the pills Lucetam that are used to treat neuropsychical diseases. In December, they cost 43.64 lei, while now they sell for 19.07 lei. Depakine, which is indicated for the treatment of convulsions, was sold for 163 lei, but now costs 112 lei. The shots Diprospan were cheapened from 437 lei to 110 lei. Minister of Health Vladimir Hotineanu said the pharmacists were warned about the forthcoming changes in setting prices and were urged not to store large quantities of drugs as they will not be able to sell them by the New Year. “The Government Decision was approved in July and those concerned knew they should not make vast stores,” he said. Vladimir Hotineanu anticipates that the prices of 95% of the imported drugs will fall, while of the other 5% will not rise at least. The head of the producer drug prices registration service Serghei Cebotari said that meetings with two large European producers will take place this week, where they will try to negotiate lower prices than in 2010 for Moldova. There are 6,000 types of drugs in Moldova. Of them, 4,300 are imported and were included in the National Catalogue of Drug Prices. Starting with January 17, the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crimes will carry out inspections at drugstores to see if the prices of the imported drugs are the same as in the National Catalogue. The profit margin must not exceed 40% of the price.