YEREVAN — The website “London Times” has published a disinformation piece falsely accusing the Armenian government of conspiring with “Western pharmaceutical companies,” according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has instructed law enforcement agencies to investigate the report and provide a legal assessment, his spokesperson Nazeli Baghdasaryan said in a statement.
“A website called the London Times has made an explicitly false claim in its report, alleging ‘secret agreements with European pharmaceutical companies’ involving Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and senior government officials,” said Baghdasaryan. “At the Prime Minister’s instruction, the article has been referred to law enforcement authorities for a legal review.”
She emphasized that no individuals involved in the pharmaceutical business are present in the Prime Minister’s circle or among the high-ranking officials mentioned in the article. “No negotiations of the kind described in the publication have taken place with any company. No such agreement or contract exists, nor could it have existed.”
Baghdasaryan suggested the report may have been commissioned externally to provoke internal unrest, or internally to undermine the government’s efforts to establish lawful, transparent practices in the pharmaceutical sector and eliminate the illegal distribution of medications. “It is possible that both scenarios are simultaneously true,” she noted.
“In any case, the implementation of a mandatory electronic prescription system is crucial,” she continued. “Such a system would ensure that every medicine, its importer, prescribing doctor, and the basis for its prescription are fully traceable and immutable. The existence of this system would make the smuggling of medications or the issuance of unfounded prescriptions extremely difficult, if not impossible.”
