Publications

Ensuring continuous access to essential and affordable medicines of good quality is one of the key components of a functional health system. The commitment of the Government of the Republic of Moldova to the implementation of the concept of essential medicines is stipulated by a series of strategic documents: National Health Policy, State Medicines Policy as well as by regulatory documents that translate this concept into practice. This report presents assessment results on the implementation of the concept of essential medicines in the national health system and identifies determinants to improve the application of the concept in practice.

This study is a continuation of the study conducted in 2013 as part of PAS Center’s Health Monitor initiative. Its purpose was to provide a situation analysis of procurement of antiretroviral drugs in the context of transition from procurement through external sources to national procurements. This assessment analyses procurements during gradual takeover of medicines procurement and concludes that the government has not fully tapped into all available technical solutions to procure quality drugs at most affordable prices to ensure a higher covereage of people living with HIV with ART within the available budget. The study outlines some opportunities for interventions, in order to maximize use on national and international resources.

In the current negotiations for Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area Agreement, the European Union (EU) requires the Republic of Moldova to introduce in the national legislation data exclusivity as a new form of intellectual property protection. Data exclusivity would allow pharmaceutical companies to hold exclusive rights over their clinical test data for a defined period of time. In essence, this measure ensures the exclusive right and market monopoly of originator drugs for a maximum of 11 years and the European Union promotes this measure to return initial investments that lead to discovering an innovative pharmaceutical entity. To support its position, the European Union brings several arguments that are discussed below in this document.