The Armenian Ministry of Health will be able to purchase the new insulin drug at a new price

ArmInfo. The Ministry of Health will be able to purchase a new insulin drug at a new price. At a meeting on November 12, the RA Government granted permission for the Ministry of Health to amend the procurement agreement.

The project justification notes that, within the framework of centralized procurement carried out by the RA Ministry of Health, budget requests for 2026-2028 provide for the purchase of long-acting insulin free of charge or on preferential terms for patients with diabetes (children and adolescents) up to 28 years of age. For this purpose, the Ministry and M.L.N. Pharm LLC signed a purchase agreement on August 19, 2025, the second tranche of which was intended for the purchase of long-acting insulin of the Levemir type (insulin detemir). However, according to an official statement from the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, due to the redistribution of global production capacities, the production and supply of this drug has been completely discontinued worldwide. In the current situation, further supplies of this product to the Republic of Armenia under the signed agreement are no longer possible. Considering the vital importance of this drug for the quality of life and health of the target group - children and young people under 28 years of age - it became necessary to revise the procurement plan and ensure a transition to a new, more efficient and stable market for the next-generation drug Insulin degludec (Tresiba) from the same manufacturer within budgetary allocations.

Considering that the market price of a unit of the new-generation drug differs from the price of the discontinued drug Levemir, the project It is proposed to authorize the Ministry of Health to amend the signed contract, setting a new price per unit dose of insulin at 7,680 drams instead of the current price of 5,475.69 drams. The proposed price is justified by the drug's qualitative and clinical advantages, as well as the change in its physicochemical characteristics (the transition from prolonged-action insulin to a new-generation, ultra-long-acting insulin).