Armenia plans to regulate destruction of counterfeit and expired  medications

ArmInfo. Armenia plans to regulate and establish controls over the destruction of counterfeit and expired medications.

The corresponding amendments to the Law "On Medicines" and the Code  of Administrative Offenses were approved in their second reading at  an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly Committee on  Healthcare on June 30.

As Vanik Ohanyan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on  Healthcare and the author of the legislative initiative, noted in his  speech, the lack of control mechanisms prevents the inspection body  from verifying whether medications are actually being destroyed. He  noted that in some cases, medications are destroyed only "on paper,"  while in fact they are preserved and can subsequently be sold. The  initiative aims to regulate the destruction of counterfeit and  expired medications and ensure proper oversight.

According to the amendments, licensed legal entities or individual  entrepreneurs engaged in the destruction of medications will be  responsible for the cancellation of excise stamps and labeling. The  procedure for enforcing these requirements will be established by  bylaws.

Ohanyan also reported that the package of bills had been discussed  with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of the Environment, and the  Labor and Health Inspectorate, which had provided positive  conclusions.