June 13 at a press conference in the press center of the Government, Chair of the Committee for Quality Control and Safety of Products and Services of the Ministry of Healthcare Lyudmila Byurabekova reported on innovations in the sale of medicines.

As Byurabekova noted, the Ministry of Healthcare is working on strengthening the control over the quality and safety of drugs and medical devices currently in circulation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. In this regard, some legislations were amended on issues such as the regulation of prices for all drugs, the strengthening of prescription drugs and the fight against counterfeits.

The regulatory norm giving the Ministry of Healthcare the authority to regulate prices for all medicines came into force.

“The price regulation rules have been developed, an order has been formed with maximum wholesale and retail prices, which passes the procedure established by the legislation and prices for retail sales will be approved in July,” Byurabekova said.

According to the ministry, the measures taken will align the price line for drugs.

“Prices may be lower than the established limit, but not higher. There will be a price limit for each brand name of the drug and their cost will be the same regardless of the region of the country. One drug will cost the same in all regions of the country,” Byurabekova emphasized.

At the same time, for violation of price regulation rules, administrative responsibility is enforced in the form of a fine — from 70 MCI to 1000 MCI (for 2019 — from 176,750 tenge to 2,525,000 tenge), depending on the category of the subject, as well as suspension of the license for pharmaceutical activity .

According to Byurabekova, these changes will ensure the availability of high-quality medicines for citizens, and the introduction of price regulation will lead to a uniform pricing policy in all regions of the country.