On 15 March, the National Assembly of Mozambique approved the Law on Medicines, Vaccines and Other Biological Products for Human Use, in order to control the quality and circulation of medicines, and the population's access to them.
This legal instrument - which amended Law no. 41/1998, of 14 January, and brought some dynamic for the pharmacological market - will allow the Mozambican health authorities to combat the diversion of medicines from the National System ("SNS").
The Government's proposal states that "the aim is to establish the rules for efficient and safe production, distribution, use and availability, as well as quality assurance of medicines, vaccines, biologicals and health products for citizens."
Therefore, it is planned to create the National Medicines Authority (“ANAME”), with functions of regulation, supervision and application of penalties to those who violate the new law, and it will be supervised by the Health Ministry. Another duty of this new Authority it will be to control the quality of medicines produced and imported, which, according to the Minister, "will help to reduce the level of products unfit for consumption."
It is also worth mentioning that, with the new legislation, health authorities will establish a unitary system of prices for the sale of medicinal products to the public, avoiding the practice of different prices for the same medicinal product.