Riga, Oct 28 (LETA) - Hospitals should be allowed to buy medicines bypassing Latvian drug wholesalers, Normunds Stanevics, Chairman of the Board of Riga East Clinical University Hospital, said in an interview with the Latvian Radio.

He explained that hospitals are currently not allowed to buy medicines directly from manufacturers. They have to buy medicines from Latvian wholesalers, which in turn creates additional costs.

Stanevics mentioned that there are medicines that are not registered in Latvia that have to be imported for the treatment of rare diseases. "It happens that a wholesaler says - we will deliver, but it will cost EUR 100 - your choice to buy or not to buy them. We cannot afford not to buy. This means we cannot control prices," he explained.

According to Stanevics, both lower prices and security in terms of reserves could be ensured if hospitals were allowed to buy medicines directly from the manufacturer. For example, the East Hospital could form an institution with another university hospital to buy medicines for themselves and for regional hospitals, Stanevics said.

He explained that in the previous two years, the East Hospital had bought EUR 19.7 million worth of medicines, while for the next two years, the procurement amounts to EUR 26 million, an increase of almost 32 percent.