Third meeting of the of the working groups for healthcare in the current year

Today, May 5, 2022, the experts of the working groups for healthcare met in a new meeting (the last one took place on April 13 this year), during which they held discussions focused on the import procedure of unauthorized medicines by the economic agents of the Transnistrian region which perform licensed pharmaceutical activity in the Republic of Moldova.

The Chisinau delegation was led by Ms. Zinaida Bezverhni, State Secretary at the Ministry of Health, coordinator of the Chisinau sectoral working group, with the participation of the General manager of the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices (AMDM), Mr. Dragos Guțu, WHO Representative in Moldova, Ms. Miljana Grbic, and officials of the Bureau of reintegration policies.

Several technical and procedural issues determining the logic of the decisions approved by the Commission for the authorization of medicines within AMDM were addressed, and the experts from Chisinau submitted a series of alternatives that would allow avoiding the occurrence of a drug shortage in the pharmaceutical market in the region and complying with the provisions of the national legislation in force, including the requirements for quality control of medicinal products.

Chisinau expressed readiness to examine and compare the lists of essential medicines on both banks of the Nistru River and to standardize them in the single list of the Republic of Moldova in order to avoid the current blockages, with the approval of a decision by relevant decision makers.

Regarding the problematic issues reported by the economic agents in the region present at the meeting, the Moldovan delegation reiterated the proposal to organize additional thematic training activities facilitated by the specialists of the relevant national institutions, with question / answer sessions / clarifications, which would allow further avoidance of the procedural difficulties encountered in importing unauthorized medicines.

In this regard, the WHO Mission to the Republic of Moldova has expressed its readiness to provide the necessary assistance and to facilitate the organization of thematic courses.

The experts agreed to continue the dialogue on current issues.