The average cost of about 800 medicines for chronic and oncological diseases will be reduced by 40 percent with the introduction of the reference pricing system starting today. The Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili wrote about this on his Facebook page.

Pharmaceutical companies, importers, distributors and retailers of medical drugs are now prohibited from selling medicines at prices exceeding the reference set by authorities.

As the Health Minister Zurab Azarashvili said, the introduction of the system marked the first phase of the reform, with reference prices to be gradually widened to include other groups.