At this week’s government meeting, members of the cabinet discussed amendments to the Law of Georgia on Medicines and Pharmaceutical Activities and draft laws pertaining to it.
In particular, reference prices will be introduced in 2023, with the state defining a maximum limit and any charges above it prohibited, a widely used practice worldwide. This reform seeks to increase access to quality medicines and ensure fair prices and a competitive and transparent pharmaceutical market. As preliminarily estimated, reference prices will reduce medication prices by an average of 40%.
At the initial stage, reference prices will apply to medications for chronic diseases. Gradually, however, the price regulating mechanism will expand to cover other groups of medicines as well.
Notably, on the initiative of the Georgian Government, the Turkish pharmaceutical market opened up in March 2022, resulting in a 60-80% reduction of medication prices in Georgia. Consequently, almost 100,000 Georgian citizens will save up to 200 million GEL. As for the introduction of reference pricing, it will further improve access to medications.
