EEU countries plan to sign agreement on single pharmaceutical market before year-end
MINSK. Oct 7 (Interfax) - The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) member states plan to sign an agreement on a single pharmaceutical products market before the end of 2014, the head of the Belarusian Health Ministry's pharmaceutical supervisory and pharmaceutical supply department Lyudmila Reutskaya said at a press conference in Minsk on Tuesday.
"A task force to work on an agreement concerning unified principles and rules on circulation of pharmaceutical products in the Union countries has been created. This commission has prepared the agreement that should be signed this year," Reutskaya said.
Belarus officials have held in-depth discussions on the matter with their counterparts in Russia and Kazakhastan to ensure that the document is effective. "We are defending the interests of patients, not producers. For that reason, the agreement is not protectionist in nature," Reutskaya said.
The EEU's single pharmaceutical market will come into being on January 1, 2016. Over the course of 2015 so-called secondary documents will be drawn up - about 30 in all - setting out pharmaceutical supervisory procedures, trade practices and other issues.
Addressing the need for state regulation of pharmaceutical trade, Reutskaya said: "The consumer cannot determine the quality of, say, the tablets that a pharmacy has for sale. Consumers need to have faith in the products they buy," she said.
The single EEU pharmaceuticals market will also feature a new system for checking pharmaceutical products, which will make it possible for member states to review the results of pharmaceutical inspections.
"We will create a unified register of Customs Union inspectors," Reutskaya said.
Inspections will be carried out under uniform standards, she said. "That is, if a specialist performs an inspection, the results will be trusted by the entire EEU. That is the convention today," she said.
The commission has no brief to defend the interests of producers, she said. Its goal is to ensure quality and safety across the entire pharmaceutical market.
