OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2010. As the Minister of Health Vladimir Hotineanu has informed at Prime Minister Vladimir Filatov working meeting on the situation in the pharmaceutical market, while in 2005 the country imported drugs for USD7 million, in 2009 the figure was USD 160 million.

Domestic drugs are sold by 22 pharmaceutical companies; the share of Moldovan drugs on the domestic market is 10%. Moldova imports medicines from 50 countries of the world. Today, permissions to import drugs are issued to 72 economic agents.

According to the Ministry of Health, the upward trend in drug prices is accompanied by strong variation in prices for the same names of drugs in different areas. Vladimir Hotineanu has noted that the audits revealed numerous violations of rules of storage of medicines. Also it disclosed fraudulent scheme which resulted in drug prices in Moldova several times higher than in neighboring states.