At its eleventh session, held on 19 May, the Committee on Health and the Family discussed and endorsed the Bill on Medicines and Medical Supplies in principle and commenced discussing its particulars.

The Committee’s session was chaired by the vice-chairperson, Snezana Pantic-Aksentijevic, and attended by representatives of the Ministry of Health.

Dragomir Marisavljevic, the Deputy Minister, underlined that the Bill on Medicines and Medical Supplies had been harmonised with European Union directives, and that, moreover, 19 of the directives had been incorporated in the Bill, which aims at harmonising Serbia’s legislation with regulations currently in force in EU countries, as well as with World Health Organisation directives, which is expected to facilitate integration into the global medicines and medical supplies market.

Mr Marisavljevic also stressed that the passage of such legislation would improve health care for the population, by providing high-quality, safe and efficient medicines through the supervision of their production, distribution and control.

The Bill also envisages the creation of a regulatory body, the National Medicines Agency.

Committee members agreed on the project for applying for funding from the OSCE Committee Development Fund. The project is entitled “Supplementing primary health care reform”.