The Ministry of Healthcare has supported domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers. Effective December 26, 2016 the drug stores will start working in compliance with recommendations according to which domestic products will have to be offered first.
This is followed from the Oder of the Ministry of Healthcare which comes into effect as of December 26, 2016, according to which changes and amendments are introduced into the Provisions on the procedure for prescribing and acceptance, storage and use of pharmaceuticals at patient healthcare and preventive facilities and, as well as the release of drugs on the basis of public pharmacy institutions’ recipes.
Overall about 10 thousand drugs have been registered and sales permits issued to this day by the Ministry of Healthcare; the number of domestically produced medicines makes up about 10% of all preparations. Namely those drugs will have to be offered first on condition of availability of their foreign analogues.
Only 2 enterprises produced medicines of about 20 types of drugs operated in Uzbekistan during the first years of independence. Currently there are 125 pharmaceutical companies which have licenses for manufacturing pharmaceutical and medicinal products. They produce 1753 types of medicines registered in the Republic of Uzbekistan and have permits for their use in medical practice. The number of domestically produced drugs will keep growing up on a continuous basis.
Information about the new norm for the promotion of domestic output produced heated discussions in social networks. Opinions split. Those who had critically conceptualized the adopted regulations primarily felt concerned about the quality of drugs.
At the same time the Ministry of Healthcare draws the attention to the fact that the system of quality control of pharmaceutical has been established in the country over the last few years. It includes the Directorate on the pharmaceuticals’ quality control and medical technology of the Ministry of Healthcare, its affiliates, as well as the monitoring-analytical laboratories under the “Dori-Darmon” JSC and internal monitoring-analytical laboratories of domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers. On top of that, the agency in charge of certification of medicinal output of the State center of expertise and standardization of pharmaceuticals is recognized by the results of the year 2014 as an exemplary certification body among 167 commodity certification bodies operating in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The laboratories of the State center of expertise and standardization of pharmaceuticals of the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Uzbekistan are included into the List of quality control laboratories, which comply with the requirements of the Global Foundation on securing quality (ISO/IECI 17025) and meet the WHO international norms and standards.
Domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers intend to expand the range of produced drugs. Thus, the initiative advanced by the Ministry of Healthcare should have a positive impact on the development of domestic production of high-quality drugs at an affordable price.
Also effective December 26, 2016:
– medical establishments are forbidden to accept, store and use substandard, counterfeit, and unregistered medicines in Uzbekistan, as well as illegal copies of drugs registered in the Republic. Earlier the document established a ban only on the prescription of unregistered medicines in Uzbekistan, as well as acceptance, possession and use of substandard medicines;
– an attending physician is not required to specify in the recipe to a patient undergoing treatment in stationary conditions the information on the use of medicines that interact with food (before, during and after the meals).
