MOSCOW, December 18 (RAPSI) – Russia’s State Duma has adopted in the third and final reading a bill on interchangeable drugs the list of which is to be open and accessible for all Internet users, the lower house of the Russian Parliament informs on Wednesday.

The document presents more precise definitions of relevant special terms in the sphere of pharmacology.

It also envisages that the list of interchangeable medicines is to be regularly renewed.

The statement stresses that the bill has been refined in the course of discussions held in the State Duma to better cater to social needs. Thus, there was adopted an amendment allowing to import shipments of unregistered narcotic-containing and psychotropic substances in cases where they are needed for treatment of live-threatening conditions; the respective procedures are to be set forth by Russia’s government.

Yet another amendment establishes that original drugs are to be defined as those with new active factors notwithstanding if they were first registered in Russia, or abroad, on condition that all pre-clinical and clinic-based studies had been performed, in order to provide Russian citizens with medicines in case foreign companies leave the national market.