Presenting the bill, Health Minister Neven Ljubicic said that under the bill the ministry would be able to initiate the registration of medicines, particularly those for the treatment of rare diseases.
The bill would make it possible for the Agency for Drugs and Medical Products to withdraw its approval for putting a medicine on the market if the medicine has not been on the market for three consecutive years. An exception from this provision would be if the marketing of a medicine is considered to be in the national interest.
Ljubicic said the bill would define for the first time conditions for the marketing of narcotics and drugs containing narcotics, and provide for the introduction of a register of such drugs.
The bill also defines for the first time the term "counterfeit drug" and envisages penalties for producing such drugs. It also introduces changes in how drug advertisement and provision of information on drugs can be distinguished.
At the start of today's session, Zeljko Pecek of the Peasant Party (HSS) requested that PM Ivo Sanader address the parliament and report on what the government and the state leadership were doing regarding the corruption scandal in the Croatian Privatisation Fund, so that the parliament could debate the matter and instruct the government how to proceed with the privatisation process.
Deputy speaker Luka Bebic said he would convey the request to PM Sanader.