The Government’s plan of action for solving the problems in the pharmaceutical sector includes a wider range of activities that are aimed not only at cheapening drugs. Its implementation will facilitate pharmaceutical assistance in the area of medicines, starting with importation, licensing, manufacture, etc., president of the Association of Pharmacists of Moldova Maria Cojocaru-Toma said in an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN.

According to Maria Cojocaru-Toma, when the list of compensated drugs is extended, another 400 pharmaceutical products will be found on this list. The extension of the list by 50% will reduce the burden on the consumers of medicines and will enable to rationally use these. The exclusion of VAT on imported medical substances will lead to a decline in the prices of national drugs.

As to another provision of the plan of action, which envisions the simplification of the access to the national market of drugs from the U.S., Japan and the EU, the Association’s president said this does not mean that there will be imported products of a low quality. “The products that will be imported are recognized and registered in the Europeans countries and are recognized by the European Medicines Agency or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So, the procedures for these products will be shorter and swifter, not yet simpler,” said Maria Cojocaru-Toma, noting that the imported medicines possess a quality certificate.

In another development, the Association’s head said that the rural drugstores on April 1 will start to implement the regressive margin. This means that the higher the price of the product is, the smaller the profit margin is. Measures are also being considered for exempting the rural drugstores from the location tax so as to support pharmaceutical assistance in rural areas.