The amendments to the regulation on distribution and control of medication were adopted in the light of the call by President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis expressed in his letter to Prime Minister Māris Kučinskis for a review of the existing regulation and withdrawal of absolute prohibition for individuals to receive medication by postal parcel from third countries.
According to the President of Latvia, with limited opportunities of the state budget and insufficient funding for state reimbursement of medication taken into account, a more flexible statutory framework was required in this area, which would provide more proportionate solutions that would restrict the rights of individual less without increasing the risks of uncontrolled and inappropriate medication usage and finding a reasonable balance between the rights of individual and protection of public health.
Mrs Valija Miezīte draw attention of the President of Latvia to the regulation on purchase of medication when she informed him on her currently unsuccessful treatment of hepatitis C and found medication that could help overcoming the disease, but whose purchase the regulation initially adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers prohibited.