Who Owned Georgia English.pdf

Kvadimax, Enozid H, Musitroli, Amtas and Calcitron, whichare imported unpackaged medicines from India. This is evenmore worrisome asthe Agency for State Regulation of MedicalActivities, which operates under the Ministry of Labour,Health, Social Affairs and is responsible for checking the qualityof medicines, lacks the expertise as well as the financial andtechnical resources to be effective. 253“According to the information we have, the drug agency hasnever found any counterfeit products, but how is this possiblewhen there is a $200-million market of fake medicines thatoccur particularly in low income countries such as Georgia?”says Irakli Margvelashvili, executive director of the Associationof Pharmaceutical Companies’ Representatives in Georgia. “ Thisshould be checked and for that you need a good system; withtechnical expertise, financial resources and so on. But you don’thave this now. This system does not currently exist in Georgia,”he adds. 254What this all comes down to is that two major companiesdominate Georgia’s pharmaceutical market with the largestshares on distribution, retail and manufacturing. The fact thatthe vast majority of “competitors” are dependent on thesecompanies makes the system look like an oligopoly, or verticalmonopoly. Moreover,these companies don’t have a monopoly,they have become active in the recently privatized insuranceand hospital market. These pharmacies now own clinics. 255Vertically integrated pharmaceutical companies that also operatein the greater health care sector create conflicts of interest on253 Ibid p.27254 Interview Irakli Margvelashvili; Executive Director Association ofPharmaceutical Companies’ Representatives in Georgia; in Report onPharmaceutical Market in Georgia, Transparency International Georgia.http://transparency.ge/sites/default/files/post_attachments/The%20Pharmaceutical%20Market%20in%20Georgia_June%202012l_0.pdf Accessed05/12/2012255 Aversi’s Company Website http://www.aversi.com/main.php?lang=eng&id=68&type=4 PSP website http://www.psp.ge/?mid=60Accessed 05/12/201262