OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2014. The Headquarters on Joint Investigations of Violations of the Antimonopoly Law in the CIS Member-States and the International Working Group for studying the issues of competition in the pharmaceutical sector held a joint meeting.

Attendees included competition authorities of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Serbia, Turkey, and several international organizations – CIS Executive Committee, the Eurasian Economic Committee, UNCTAD, and the European Commission. The meeting was chaired by the Headquarters top executive – Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Anatoly Golomolzin.

“Drafting a Report on the findings of large-scale study of the state of competition on pharmaceutical markets in the CIS member-states is completed. Competition authorities of Russia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Tajikistan took part in the project”, pointed out Anatoly Golomolzin. “The Report evaluates the state of competition on CIS pharmaceutical markets, discusses the issues of market entry for new participants, specifics of sectoral regulation and gives recommendations for developing competition in line with international experience”.

Deputy Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Nadezhda Sharavskaya, gave a presentation about common issues for all CIS countries in developing competition on pharmaceutical markets and approaches to them, preliminary approved by competition authorities of the CIS member-states.

Nadezhda Sharavskaya also shared information about changes in the law of the Russian Federation aimed at developing competition on pharmaceutical markets. For instance, the requirements are introduced to the law to procure medicines under international non-proprietary names rather than trade names; it is prohibited to include different medicines in the same lot above the sum established by the government and include narcotic, psychotropic, radio-pharmaceutical medicines and unique medicines in mixed lots. Also doctors must prescribe medicines on prescription forms under international non-proprietary names, and in their absence – under generic names. Pharmaceutical companies are prohibited to exercise unfair marketing policies to promote drugs through corruption with particular doctors, and doctors and pharmacy technicians – to be involved in such interaction.

According to FAS, to ensure market entry of new participants and efficient control over drug quality a unified regulatory body should be formed. Many countries have a single regulator, while Russia has 6. For example, as a senior coordinator of Turkey’s competition authority, Ali Demirez, informed, in Turkey the Ministry of health Care issues licenses and sets the maximum prices for medicines.

Joint efforts with the CIS countries to study competition on the pharmaceutical markets and pricing have already caused the first positive effect: prices for some vital medicines decreased. In the near future the final report will be forwarded to the CIS Executive Committee to draft proposals in accordance with the established procedures on improving national policies and regulation of pharmaceutical markets in the CIS.

Since not only the economy but people’s health is at stake, FAS proposed to form an inter-state information pharmaceutical platform for antimonopoly bodies of various countries. The initiative is already supported by competition authorities of Italy, Austria, Turkey, and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). “The problems are national but the decision must be regional”, emphasized the Head of UNCTAD Competition and Consumer Policies Branch, Hassan Qaqaya.

At the moment a decision is made to create a sectoral database on pharmaceutical markets at UNCTAD.

Similar databases will be formed on the markets of oil products and telecommunications. The issue was discussed at the Round Table with UNCTAD.