Minister of Health promises cheaper drugs

The Minister of Health has announced medicaments will become cheaper beginning in January 2011, after all the pharmaceutical companies will publish producer's prices. According to Minister Vladimir Hotineanu, the prices for some medicines could decrease by 40%, Info-Prim Neo reports. Serghei Cebotari, head of the Service for Approving and Registering Producer's Price for Medicines, declared during a press conference on Tuesday, September 28, that the final price for drugs will be related to product's average cost in 5 EU countries and 3 CIS states. However, the prices in drugstores will be higher than the one calculated by the Service, because of the VAT, the vice director of Medicine Agency Maria Cojocaru-Toma has mentioned. According to the current law, the overall VAT cannot be higher than 40% (15% for importers and 25% for drugstores). The proportion can be agreed between market agents. The Minister of Health has informed that only 12 out of 80 companies have presented declarations regarding producer's prices for medicines.