If the Ministry of Health does not take appropriate measures, Armenia's medical drug market will face extremely difficult situation by the end of this year. This was stated by Anush Poghosyan, co-founder of the "Right to Health" human rights NGO, at a press conference Friday.

"Today, 3,260 types of [medical] drugs are registered in Armenia. Compared to 2018, the absolute number of registered drugs has decreased by 40 percent. Of the 3,260 registered drugs, about 1,800 are available and subject to sale. That is, the registration deadlines for those drugs still exist, but the drug is no longer on the [Armenian] market,” said Poghosyan.

According to her, it has been one year since Armenia has switched to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) medical drug registration procedures, and national procedures are not being carried out.

“By December 31, 2025, the sale of all nationally registered drugs will be halted in Armenia, which will further aggravate the problem,” said Poghosyan.

She noted that the registration of one type of medical drug, which was supposed to take about 60 days in Armenia, now takes more than one year, and when the Ministry of Health is asked what the problem is, they answer that they do not have the resources to carry all of it out faster.

“At the moment, 8,500 types of drugs are registered in the registers of the EAEU countries, but these 8,500 types of drugs are not allowed to be imported into Armenia. The Ministry of Health does not issue permits. It turns out that we are motivating so that medicines are imported to Armenia in other—illegal—ways," Poghosyan said.

In her words, 8,000 types of medical drugs are registered in neighboring Georgia and another 3,000 types of medical drugs are allowed for parallel import. That is, de facto 11,000 types of medical drugs are registered in Georgia. In addition, medical drugs are more affordable in Georgia, since there is no value-added tax (VAT) on them there, while in Armenia the VAT is 20 percent.

Also, the state fee for the registration of one type of medical drug is 1 million 500 thousand drams in Armenia, which is very expensive.