There are approximately 3700 brand name drugs enlisted in Armenia’s
“Drugs and medical technology agency” closed joint-stock company. This
means that these drugs have passed high-quality experiments by the
company and then “received the right” for sale. The medical agency pays
$1500 dollars for just the experimental research and registration of
the brand name drug and another $ 80 dollars state tax. According to
enterprising workers in the agency that amount is too much for Armenian
standards, especially when the government of Armenia constituted a 20%
value added tax(VAT) for the import and export of drugs. These two
conditions and the imperfections of the legislative field promoted the
increase in shady circulation of drugs in the pharmacies. According to
experts, the amounts of shady enterprise reach 40-60%. In this stage,
the shady circulation of drugs means that the drugs being circulated
are registered or unregistered for taxing and are illegally imported
into the country (this also includes drugs that have not gone through
experiments and that are highly unpredictable). There is no penalty for
these types of drugs. The law only states that the Republic of Armenia
forbids the import, sale, produce or keeping of them. The imperfections
of the law obviously make way for more shady circulation of drugs. The
drugs smuggled into Armenia are mainly from Georgia because they are
cheaper there. There is no value added tax (VAT) for drugs in Georgia
and the price of registering one brand name drug is only $465 dollars.
If Armenia is importing the drugs legally or illegally from Georgia,
that means that Georgian businessman are doing business in the Armenian
market. There is one nuance: if the businessman decides to import a
large amount of items, then the producer has to make a lot of discounts
on the products. Georgia also gained a lot here. Whether we like it or
not, Georgia gained by taking advantage of our government and
importing. Another nuance is that there is no exact information
regarding how the drug makes its way to Georgia. It is possible that
the drug has been smuggled or maybe it has been forged. According to
the “Medinform” agency, there are nearly 150 brand name and
unregistered drugs being circulated in the pharmacies. In general, the
drugs that have high demand are the ones being smuggled. In some cases
the drugs being smuggled are the necessary ones with low demand. Due to
the high price for registration, the drugs are illegally circulated. It
would be a good thing if all the drugs in Armenia were to be
registered. Otherwise it is not profitable for the businessman involved
in the drug marketing business to spend $1580 dollars a year for the
registration of 50-100 drugs. As soon as the drugs are registered, then
it will be possible to check the quality. How will the sick patient
know if the drug was prepared in an underground floor somewhere, or who
knows where?….. According to preliminary information, “Baralgin”,
“Advil”, “Citochron-C” and other drugs are not registered but are sold
in Armenia. The pharmaceutical agency also confirmed this information.
“Baralgin” can be found in almost all pharmacies. “Advil” is sold at
the “Margarit INC” pharmacy on Abovyan street. Before entering the
pharmacy, we tried to find “Advil” in other pharmacies on the street.
The staff working at the pharmacy affirmed that “Advil” is not
registered as a drug in Armenia and that’s why they don’t have it. But
the staff of “Margarit INC” made no comment about that. The drug costs
4,000 drams. After purchasing the drug, we asked for a receipt, but the
chief of the pharmacy by the name of Ruzanna refused to give it to us,
claiming that that is the personal problem of the finance director.
This is one of the many examples. Very often the drugs being sold in
the pharmacies are expired drugs sent from other countries. There are
unregistered drugs in many Armenian pharmacies. Let’s not deny the fact
that the smugglers of unregistered drugs are somewhat doing a good job.
A pharmacy customer by the name of Kristine Manukyan said that she
hardly managed to find the drug “Uteplex” which she needs for her
daughter’s strengthening of muscles. She has obviously gotten the drug
illegally. That drug is also unregistered in Armenia. Basically, there
is a demand for some unregistered drugs. As we can see, there is also a
supply but through the means of smuggling. Another absurd fact: The
Ministry of Health licensing department provides the pharmacy with a
license and the department staff also participates in researching the
drugs. There is a possibility of a “criminal agreement” between the
pharmacy and the staff giving the license. It is hard to believe that
the government leaders are not informed about all of this. However,
experts say that even if pharmacies are constituted by laws, or if they
take out the value added tax, then the cost of drugs will go up and our
budget will increase. In that case, many pharmacies, including
“Margarit INC” will no longer sell unregistered drugs. One thing is for
sure: the pharmacy market is “growing” in Armenia just like any other
economic field in the country “grows”.
