Baghdasaryan on Pashinyan’s Claims of 'Secret Agreements'

The London Times has made a clearly false claim in its publication, attributing 'secret agreements with European pharmaceutical companies' to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and senior representatives of the power structure of Armenia. This was stated by the press secretary of the Prime Minister, Nazeli Baghdasaryan.

“This publication has been sent to law enforcement agencies for a legal assessment at the direction of the Prime Minister. However, we now deem it necessary to clarify that neither the Prime Minister nor any of the senior officials mentioned in the publication are involved with individuals engaged in the pharmaceutical business. No negotiations of the nature mentioned in the publication have taken place with any company. There are no agreements or contracts of the kind mentioned in the publication, nor could there have been any,” Baghdasaryan wrote.

“It is evident that the emergence of this slanderous publication could have two clients: external, to provoke internal discord in Armenia, or internal, to counter the Government's efforts to establish legality and transparency in the pharmaceutical market, and to end illegal circulation of drugs. It is possible that both options may be real simultaneously. In any case, it is clear that the mandatory system for issuing prescriptions only electronically is an extreme necessity, so that any prescribed drug for any patient, its importer, prescribing doctor, and the justification for the prescription are traceable and immutable. The existence of such a system would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to illegally import drugs and to make unjustified prescriptions to patients,” Baghdasaryan added.