Iraq shows great interest in medicines made in Armenia

Arpimed and Likvor pharmaceutical companies will receive good manufacturing practice (GMP) certificates until September, the Chairman of Union of Medicine Producers and Importers Samvel Zakarian told Aysor.am.

GMP certificates will allow the abovementioned companies to sell their products in European countries.

According to Zakarian, Iraq shows great interest in Armenian medicines, but it wants a confirmation of manufacturing standards, while GMP certificates will become such a confirmation.

There has been a 14-17% annual growth in the pharmaceutical industry in recent years, Samvel Zakarian said.

Speaking about an increase in prices of medicines, he noted that in the past 6 months the prices have not changed, there was only a 3-4% growth in some cases. The union chairman linked the rise in prices of some drugs with seasonal diseases, for example, the prices of anti-allergy medicines tend to go up in the summer. In his words, the turnover of counterfeit and unregistered medicines does not exceed 4% in Armenia. He added that such medicines are brought in bags from Georgia and a 20% VAT is not imposed, which results in a difference in prices of Armenian and Georgian medicines.