A New Paradigm for Regulating Georgian Pharmaceutical Market

Curatio International Foundation in partnership with UK-Georgia professional Network (UGPN) conducted policy club discussion to increase awareness of the civil society organization regarding the Bill on Changes and Amendments to the Georgian Law on Drugs and Pharmaceutical Activities, which has been passed by the Parliament of Georgia 10th of August, 2009 and is effective from October 15, 2009. The draft Bill has been developed with the technical support of the CIF consultants under the auspices of the USAID funded CoReform project and has been modeled on procedures already in place in Europe. Therefore, the Bill introduces completely new approaches to the drug market regulation procedures in Georgia. The proposed new regulatory environment is expected to simplify drug registration procedures, improve access to safe drugs and promote market competitiveness.

The demand for the Bill has been created by the fact that the share of imported drugs amounts to almost 90% in Georgian drug market, therefore, it became pivotal for GoG to pay special attention to import regulation and apply adequate instruments. For that reason policies relating to drugs and pharmaceuticals have increasingly been in spotlight in 2007 and 2008. The policy club discussion was organized in the framework of the “Strengthening Civil Society Capacity to Promote Research Evidence for Policy Development in Georgia” project aiming at building the skills of civil society organizations on improved provision of the evidence in policy making process. The project is implemented by the Curatio International Foundation with the financial support of Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (AHPSR) and Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF).

Mr. Vakhtang Megrelishvili the lead CIF expert in 2007-2008, who assisted the GoG in draft Bill development, made a presentation for the civil society organizations covering the following important issues: a)background information; b) why the need for creation of a new regulatory environment for the pharmaceutical market has emerged; c) recommendations provided by the CIF experts to the GoG for improvement for the drug market regulation; d) excepted and rejected by the government recommendations; e) expected impacts of the Bill on the Georgia pharmaceutical market.

The civil society organization expressed their interest and willingness to participate in the Bill execution monitoring process to observe how the Bill will affect pharmaceutical market.

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