Armenia’s minister of health on Friday dispelled the population’s concerns over the circulation of fake medicines in the drugstore chains of Armenia, Tert.am informed.
No fake medicines in Armenia – minister
STEPANAKERT, NOVEMBER 6, ARTSAKHPRESS: Speaking at a joint sitting held by the National Assembly’s Standing Committees on Healtcare, Maternity and Childhood, and Budgetary Affairs, Armen Muradyan said that any medicine entering Armenia must be registered in case of even slight changes in parameters.
“That process has been going on for years, and it is worth mentioning that we have managed to ensure a sufficiently high level in the sector. We are able to carry out that work based on international laboratory standards.”
The remark came in response to a question raised by Vahan Babayan, an opposition lawmaker from Prosperous Armenia, who was concerned over the control mechanisms on the market. He said he knows many cases when people preferred to acquire medicines from a abroad, not trusting the domestic market.
According to the minister, however, illegal drug circulation has a very low percentage in Armenia.
“We have been able to secure the desired level over years. In some individual cases only, patients asked a relative to bring them a medicine, saying that a specific drug which they bought in Armenia is less effective than the one sent from a third country,” Muradyan noted.
He cited objective and subjective factors accounting for the statistics.
“As far as the objective part is concerned, I am not ready for comments; subjectively, there is the notion of placebo effect in medicine, which is absolutely clear and documented. It is an accepted notion, so that placebo effect is taken into consideration in any research. A patient can be simply given a pill and said it is effective. And that would ensure efficiency of treatment in 10% of cases,” the minister said, adding the method does not rule out adverse effects in another 10% of cases.
