Export of medicines, sanitary equipment - banned

Acting Health Minister Victor Costache said on Thursday evening that he issued the order to suspend the export of medicines for a period of six months, hereby stopping at the border "countless" trucks with "tens of tonnes" of medicines and sanitary materials. "At the moment, countless trucks, tens of tonnes of medicines and sanitary materials that would have been removed from the country by parallel export have been stopped at the border of Romania. I issued this order today, which was published in issue 202 of the Official Gazette: I quote article 2: 'The distribution outside the Romanian territory of the medicines included in the national catalogue of the prices of medicines authorized to be placed on the market in Romania is suspended temporarily for a period of 6 months from the date of entry into force of this order (...)'. In the context of the COVID-19 crisis, due to the lack of medicines and materials on the European market, there were many pieces of equipment, devices and supplies that would have been otherwise removed from Romania," said Victor Costache at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry, at the end of the meeting of the National Committee for Special Emergency Situations. According to a release sent by the Ministry of Health, the list will be established together with experts from the specialist committees of the ministry, taking into account, in particular, medicines such as: antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antithermal, antifungal, anesthetic, sedative, as well as other drugs considered necessary in the treatment of COVID-19 cases and their complications. Also, the list will include sanitary materials and medical devices such as: gloves, syringes, masks, goggles, disinfectant solutions, as well as other medical materials and devices identified to be necessary for the management of COVID-19 cases. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mihai Stoica, editor: Antonia Nita; EN - author: Bogdan Gabaroi, editor: Simona Iacob)