BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 16
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting to analyze ongoing work to develop the pharmaceutical industry and provide the population with medicines, as well as discuss priorities for the future, Trend reports citing the presidential press service.
During the meeting, Mirziyoyev focused on identifying priorities for providing the population and healthcare facilities with affordable and high-quality drugs, medical devices and equipment.
It was noted that there were sufficient opportunities to localize at least 50 percent of the domestic consumption of pharmaceutical products by 2025 and to bring the range of domestic products from the current 2,500 to 4,000 items.
The Agency for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Ministry of Investments and Foreign Trade has been tasked with compiling a list of new products being developed, developing promising projects together with large pharmaceutical enterprises in India, Russia, Ukraine, China, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
The president instructed responsible persons to expand the range of original domestic medicines to at least 100 over the next five years.
The Ministry of Finance and the Agency for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry have been tasked with developing software for labeling and controlling the movement of drugs, and introducing it before the end of 2020. This will prevent circulation of counterfeit products and track the demand for medicines in real time.
During the meeting it was pointed out that the GMP quality standard recommended by the World Health Organization is being introduced at the enterprises of the industry in Uzbekistan.
Mirziyoyev instructed to develop a five-year concept for the development of the pharmaceutical industry.
The presidential decree “On measures to radically improve the pharmaceutical industry management system” of Nov. 7, 2017 established the Agency for the Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry at the Ministry of Health.
As a result, over the past two years, 41 new pharmaceutical enterprises have been created; their total number has reached 191. This year, the volume of production in the industry has increased by 1.5 times compared to last year.
On the territory of 8 free economic zones of pharmaceutical orientation in Uzbekistan, 18 new capacities with a total value of $84 million were commissioned; it launched the production of medicines of 600 items and more than 50 types of medical devices.
The volume of the pharmaceutical market in Uzbekistan is estimated at $1 billion; however the share of local manufacturers on it is small.
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