Krasnodar prosecutors check for overpricing in drugstores

The Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory is inspecting the pharmaceutical entities-retailers of medical products for availability of the necessary drugs and facts of unjustified excessively high prices on medicines.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that similar checks are now held in all regions of Russia. In the context of mass flu outbreaks and increased swine flu morbidity, antiviral drugs are at a very high demand. Because of that, cases of unjustified overpricing have become frequent, first of all, on anti-flu preparations.

While examining Krasnodar drugstores, the Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory has also revealed facts of illegal overpricing. At every drugstore, they chose ten drug names out of the list of one hundred most vitally-important medicines. The retail surcharge on medicines should not exceed 25 percent of the net price; however, according to prosecutors, the drugstores of the trading networks "Quantum Pharma" and "Drugstores 36.6-South" this threshold was exceeded.

Such checks are held in all districts of the Krasnodar Territory. In particular, the prosecutor's office of the Seversk district conducted, jointly with an expert of the local "Rospotrebnadzor" (Consumer Supervision Agency) and an OVD inspector, a check for availability of antiviral drugs and medicinal goods in district drugstores and the storage conditions. It was revealed that chemist's point No. 8 of the LLC "Lenmedsnab-Doctor W" failed to observe the sanitary-epidemiological requirements to storage of immunobiological preparations.

In the Labinsk District, the check revealed violations not at drugstores but at the district hospital.

"In violation of the law, the children's polyclinic and the obstetric ward had no certificates on the vaccines used for inoculating newborns and minors, which deprived parents of their right to get complete and reliable documentary information confirming the safety of the medical preparation," the press service reports. "At the obstetric ward, the check of the medical documentation also revealed facts of injecting vaccine against hepatitis 'B' to a newborn without taking an informed mother's consent. Besides, violations in the form of poor cleaning of vaccination rooms and lack of the necessary disposable medical stock were revealed."