According to Zurab Azarashvili, Minister of Health, as a result of the pharmaceutical reform, the citizens of Georgia saved up to 350 million GEL.

As the minister noted, medicines became significantly cheaper, in some cases by 80%.

"When I arrived at the ministry in January last year, the first conversation I had with the Prime Minister was about his idea to study in detail the possibilities of opening the Turkish market and how effective it would be. At the very first meeting of the government, an agreement was reached to open the Turkish market, and from there, alternative medicines of exactly the same quality would enter. Even then, there were speculations that they were imported, but they were of poor quality, production of uncontrolled, there was falsification, etc., in Turkey. I was in Turkey in March of the previous year, I was on the spot to see for myself what kind of regulator it has and it is very strict; by the way, I would say that it is stricter than in some European countries. I saw the conditions under which medicines are produced there, I was convinced and confidently continued to work on the reform. Today, we see that medicines have become significantly cheaper, in some cases even by 80%," said the Minister of Health.

According to Zurab Azarashvili, medicines imported from Turkey, based on the principles of competition, also influenced the cost of medicines imported from other countries.

"Today, the prices of many medicines, whether they are imported from Turkey or from different countries, are almost equal, and our citizens no longer have to pay 2- and 3-fold increased prices. At the same time, this year we started the reform of reference prices, which will be extended to the main part by the end of the year.

In general, as a result of the mentioned reforms, we can say that our citizens had to pay 300 to 350 million GEL less in medicines. I agree, this is quite a significant savings, and I think it is one of the most successful reforms we have made," said the Minister of Health.

The information is distributed by the Ministry of Health.