Health Inspection body of Armenia issued fines totaling 3 billion  drams for violations in the field of drug circulation this year

ArmInfo. The Health and Labor Inspection body of Armenia has issued administrative acts totaling  about 3 billion drams for violations in the field of drug circulation in the first 8 months of this year.

This was stated by Slavik Sargsyan, the head of the Health and Labor Inspection body of  Armenia, during a press conference on August 28th.  To give a clearer  picture of the bleak situation in the industry, Sargsyan published  data on violations for 2023. According to him, the inspection body  only issued fines totaling only 500 million drams last year.  ''The  main fines concern the sale of prescription drugs without a  prescription, expired drugs or unregistered drugs. In 2024, fines  totaling 3.6 million drams were issued for the sale of expired drugs,  11 million for sale without a prescription, and 2, 9 billion drams  for unregistered drugs or drugs imported in violation of the  country's legislation," the head of the inspection body explained.   He also mentioned that the fine for importing unregistered drugs into  the country in violation of the legislation is 1 million drams for up  to five packages of one drug name, and 2 million drams for more than  5 names.

"The fine for selling expired drugs is 100,000 drams, and for  dispensing a prescription drug without a prescription, it is 5,000  drams," Sargsyan explained.  Touching on the mechanisms for  monitoring the sale of electronic prescriptions, he noted that  regardless of when the operator conducts an inspection, the data on  the sale of drugs prescribed by an electronic prescription is stored  indefinitely and the presence of violations will be observed starting  from the moment of implementation, that is, from March 1, 2024.  Speaking about the inspections carried out by the body, he noted that  they are conducted either once a year, once every 3 years, or once  every 5 years, depending on the presence of business entities in a  particular risk group: the higher the risk group, the more frequent  the inspection is carried out. At the same time, inspections based on  signals received from citizens can be carried out in unlimited  quantities.