Prices of 6,500 medicines have been reduced. What about quality? Interview with the head of the Pharma Agency

Prices of 6,500 medicines reduced. What about the quality issue? Interview with the head of the Pharma Agency

To date, the prices of nearly 6,500 types of medicines have been reduced in Uzbekistan. Some drugs have become cheaper by up to 40–60 percent. This was announced by Abdulla Azizov, Director of the Agency for Development of the Pharmaceutical Industry, in an interview with media representatives within the framework of the "Investing in Children's Wellbeing" Global Summit held in Samarkand, a Gazeta correspondent reports.

In the conversation, he spoke about the results of regulating medicine prices, the introduction of the electronic prescription system, the problem of overprescribing drugs by doctors, and corruption in the pharmaceutical sector.

— Last year, our President gave an instruction to review medicine prices and correct artificially inflated prices. These measures are being implemented step by step: price changes announced on December 1, 2025, came into force on March 1, 2026. On this basis, the prices of 2,000 types of medicines were initially lowered.

During subsequent studies, we introduced certain amendments to the legislation. The main goal was to prevent artificial inflation by comparing medicine prices with prices in neighboring and other countries. On April 1, another announcement regarding additional medicines was made. The changes in it came into force on July 1, and the prices of another 2,000 types of drugs were lowered. Thus, the number of medicines with revised prices reached 4,500.

During the next studies in September, it became known that artificially inflated prices still existed for certain drugs. For this reason, the prices of approximately another 2,000 types of medicines were reviewed. To date, the prices of a total of 6,500 types of medicines have been lowered.

Nearly 8,000 types of medicines are imported into Uzbekistan. Taking into account those dispensed with a prescription among them, the prices of approximately 5,000 have been lowered. The remaining 1,500 are mainly products of local manufacturers.

Our main goal is not just to lower the price of medicines, but to prevent its artificial inflation and establish price correction mechanisms. Because if all medicine prices are required to be reduced at once, for example, by 30 percent, certain drugs may disappear from the market. Such situations have been observed in other countries as well.

— One of the most important tasks for us is to ensure that medicines with reduced prices do not disappear from the market. Our people should not be left unable to find necessary drugs. Therefore, we constantly monitored this process.

In January-August, it was identified that nearly 670 medicines stopped being imported into Uzbekistan. However, almost all of them had alternatives. It turned out that only 38 types of drugs had no substitute medicine available. The next monitoring conducted at the end of September showed that other medicines began to enter in place of the 30 types of drugs that were previously no longer imported. This is an important result in terms of ensuring the availability of necessary medicines for the population.

In this regard, we also held negotiations with entrepreneurs, studied their problems, and discussed in which directions assistance could be provided. Cooperation with market participants in price regulation helps prevent drug shortages.

— In Uzbekistan, there is a problem of polypharmacy, that is, prescribing an excessive number of medicines to a patient at the same time. This is widespread. We see that up to 10–15 drugs are written in some prescriptions. In European countries, in most cases, one or two, and if necessary, three drugs are prescribed to a patient.

One of the reasons for this problem is that in some cases doctors are offered a financial interest for recommending certain brands. By eliminating the artificially inflated margin in the structure of medicine prices, such incentive mechanisms can also be reduced. We are now observing that the number of prescribed drugs has decreased in some hospitals, including in the field of pediatrics. This is a positive result.

However, another problem is emerging: we see an increase in cases of prescribing biologically active supplements and over-the-counter drugs, whose prices are not regulated. This is not a good trend.

Biologically active supplements are not the same as medicines. They cannot replace drugs intended to treat disease. Therefore, we also need to study in what situations and for what purpose doctors are recommending them. This issue cannot be solved by punishment alone. Correctly guiding and training doctors, as well as increasing the medical literacy of the population, is important.

— Inspections are being conducted in all regions. The main goal is to detect the sale of smuggled or counterfeit medicines, control compliance with marking requirements, and check whether reference prices are being applied correctly.

Also, the FarmUz mobile application was developed so that the population can independently check the prices and markings of medicines. Users can check the marking and reference price of a medicine and obtain information about alternative drugs through the app.

If a medicine is sold at a price higher than the reference price, a citizen can send information about this to authorized bodies through the application. There is also an opportunity to choose a cheaper one among alternative drugs.

We cannot say that the electronic prescription system has been fully launched. We still have a lot of work to do in this direction.

First of all, infrastructure needs to be improved. Although the electronic prescription system has been implemented in pharmacies, the population has not yet fully adapted to it. In some private hospitals, the process of writing electronic prescriptions has not been completely established either. Therefore, cases of selling medicines without an electronic prescription are observed in some pharmacies. However, our goal is to fully launch the system.

An electronic prescription, first of all, increases the responsibility of doctors. Because the doctor will be responsible for each medicine he or she prescribes. At the same time, the population must also properly understand that this system serves the interests of patients. In an electronic prescription, it is possible to write up to five medicines for one patient. However, the possibility of including biologically active supplements in the prescription is not provided for. This is one of the measures aimed at limiting overprescribing.

— No, the main problem is not only the presence or absence of an electronic prescription. Corruption and the practice of financially incentivizing doctors in exchange for recommending certain drug brands also play an important role here.

Such mechanisms began to spread widely in 2005–2006. A practice was formed where "agents" of pharmaceutical companies made doctors write certain drugs by giving them money or supporting them financially. In developed countries, strict measures are taken against such illegal practices.

An electronic prescription alone cannot completely eliminate corruption. For example, a doctor can write five drugs through the electronic system and then recommend an additional 10 drugs to the patient on paper. Therefore, it is necessary to get to the root of the problem.

By eliminating the artificially inflated margin in the structure of medicine prices, it is possible to achieve a situation where there is no longer a financial interest in prompting doctors to prescribe certain brands. This is also one of the goals aimed at regulating prices.

To date, the prices of nearly 6,500 types of medicines have been lowered. The prices of certain drugs dropped by an average of 40 to 60 percent.

After that, we are also monitoring changes in the pharmaceutical market. In conversations with doctors, we received information that the number of agents has significantly decreased. Some of the large pharmaceutical companies have dismissed their agents. Some have moved to the direction of biologically active supplements.

This situation should not be left out of sight either. If corruption incentive mechanisms in the trade of medicines are eliminated, the interest in prescribing more of certain brands will also decrease. And this can help prevent polypharmacy.

Taking many drugs affects not only the patient's health, but also their family budget. For example, if a person receiving a pension of two million soums needs to buy medicines worth three million soums every month due to a chronic illness, this will not be possible. In addition, there are also side effects of taking excessive drugs.

Recently, an acquaintance of mine said that her mother-in-law used to spend more than two million soums a month on medicine, and now she spends around 400 thousand soums for all her drugs. She has started saving the remaining money for the Hajj pilgrimage. Such examples show how important the affordability of medicines is for people.

It should be mentioned here that CPHI, a major international exhibition in the pharmaceutical sector, was recently held in Milan. More than 3,000 companies participated in it. Uzbekistan also participated in this event for the first time and won an award in the "Excellence with Purpose" category. This recognition is related to the work carried out on regulating medicine prices, preventing their artificial inflation, and digitalizing monitoring processes.

Our experience can serve as an example for other countries as well. Regulating medicine prices is not an easy process. For this, working together with state agencies, manufacturers, importers, and other market participants, putting the interests of the population first, is required.