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Ministry Of Health Last To Notice High Prices For Medicines

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Ministry Of Health Last To Notice High Prices For Medicines

The prices for certain medicines in Belarus are higher than in Russia or the European Union.

“Such problem does exist”, — Belarusian Deputy Minister of Health Valery Shauchuk has admitted, holding a speech before the members of the “House of Representatives” on May 25, BelaPAN news agency writes.

“Many foreign manufacturers take into account the capacity of the market when they export their products. If the capacity is bigger the price naturally goes down. It is obvious that the Belarusian pharmaceutical market cannot be compared with the Russian one. In monetary terms, the capacity of the Belarusian market makes $ 700 million, the Russian one being about $ 20 billion, — Shauchuk has noted.

He has informed how the Belarusian Ministry of Health plans to cut down the prices for medicines.

“Firsthand, we are trying to negotiate with the manufacturers on shipments directly, without any intermediaries. Many agree to such step, some refuse with the motivation of the market being too small: don’t buy if you don’t want to,” — the Deputy Minister has said.

Secondly, according to him, the Ministry of Health is trying to cut down the prices for medicines by reducing wholesale and retail markups. “The maximum mark-ups being 40%, the mark-up for expensive medical preparations makes no more than 3-4%,” — Shauchuk has noted.

The third way, which the Deputy Minister considers the most effective, is organization of manufacture of medical preparations in Belarus. “This is not a quick step, but we are taking it. For example, we had mastered production of a cancer medicine, and after that the manufacturer reduced the price by six times at once. The budget economy made about $ 3,5 million,” — Shauchuk has informed.

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