Armenia. Probe into pharmaceutical market reveals new breaches

A failure to follow the drug procurement procedures cause the State Budget to lose annually 1.5 billion Drams (about $3.7 m).

The State Committee for Protection of Economic Competition introduced on Friday the results of its recent monitoring in 134 hospitals in the capital city and the regions, as well as in over 300 companies engaged in drug manufacturing and trading.

“It turned out, as a result, that 100 out of the 134 medical institutions acquired the medicines without announcing a contest. So, their directors prove to decide themselves who to acquire the necessary medicines from. But that isn’t the case as the medicines were purchased at several times higher prices,” said the head of the committee, Artak Shaboyan.

All that, he said, results in extra budgetary spending, with hospitals having to pay 3-6 times more than they would if they procured the drugs at market prices.

“We will send the names of all the institutions which violated procedures to the Prosecutor General’s Office today,” Shaboyan said.

The first round of the inspections into the market had revealed cases of antitrust agreements, causing the committee to establish liability measures against several companies.

Source: http://goo.gl/QjGaR