«Mechanisms for setting price limits for medicines can lead to their shortage,» Askat Azarbekov, Chief Specialist of the Legal Support and Procurement Department of the State Antimonopoly Regulation Agency, said at a briefing today.
According to him, the government’s decree on temporary price regulation applies only to a certain list of drugs. It allows to introduce control over the prices of medicines that are included in the list of vital ones.
«We can expeditiously supplement this list with medicines that are used in treatment of coronavirus. Thus, the process could be regulated. There is a law on domestic trade, which provides for the possibility of introducing temporary state regulation of prices for 90 days. We could regulate prices of medicines for treatment of coronavirus as socially significant products. Thanks to this, the issue of pricing could be solved. But they don’t take such a step, because any interference in the business has consequences. Large companies do not want this,» Askat Azarbekov said.
One way or another, there is already a shortage of medicines in the country. Therefore, solution to the problem may be creation of an urgent state enterprise to provide the market with medicines. Such a company could supply the necessary goods at already set prices.
«A state enterprise could establish certain rules of the game for deficit medicines,» Askat Azarbekov said.
