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Health Ministry concerned over low pharmacy standards

MOSCOW, November 21. /ITAR-TASS/. The Russian Health Ministry has expressed concern over a big number of pharmacies in Russia, which provokes price dumping policies and lowers pharmacy quality standards, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told the Presidium of the Russian government on Thursday.

The Russian pharmacy market has a huge number of economic entities running the production and distribution sectors. A total of 550 organizations and a thousand foreign pharmacies have licenses for medicine production and deliveries, Skvortsova said with reference to the Single License Register of the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade.

In Russia, there is one pharmacy per every 1,450 people, in the United States - one pharmacy per every 4,500 people and in Germany - one pharmacy per 3,900 people, she said. There is a surplus number of pharmacies in Russia; the quality of pharmacy services is worsening; the share of pharmacies capable to produce medicines or which have the necessary conditions for the storage of medicines and narcotic-containing stuff has been declining, Skvortsova said.

Creation of vertically integrated structures and large pharmacy networks hinders the development of a competitive environment, provokes price dumping and creates problems for producers of medicines, Skvortsova said.

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