Health minister highlights maternal care gains, drug price cuts, urges caution over Duchenne therapies

Georgia’s Health Minister Mikheil Sarjveladze has said child mortality has declined in recent years and that early signs of improvement are also emerging in maternal mortality, attributing the trend to expanded access and improved quality of reproductive health services.

Speaking in parliament under interpellation procedures, Sarjveladze said the number of antenatal visits for pregnant women has doubled, while new services – including postnatal visits and access to psychological support – are now being funded. He added that the national maternal and child health programme has been expanded to include screening for conditions such as galactosaemia, adrenogenital syndrome and biotinidase deficiency.

He also noted antenatal care coverage has reached 95%, which he described as a key indicator of programme effectiveness. He also pointed to a primary healthcare reform launched in 2025, placing greater emphasis on early childhood development monitoring and preventive education for young people up to the age of 18.

Sarjveladze said regionalisation of antenatal and perinatal services has also been implemented, adding that maternal and child health indicators are widely used to assess both healthcare performance and broader economic development.

The minister also highlighted the impact of the government’s reference pricing reform for medicines, stating that between 2023 and 2025 the public paid a total of 853 million lari less for pharmaceuticals, with average prices falling by around 40%. He said that for some medicines, retail prices have dropped by as much as 70–90%.

Reference prices have now been set for more than 7,500 pharmaceutical products. Initially applied to medicines used in chronic disease management and certain oncology drugs, the system has since been extended to commonly used medicines and, more recently, to controlled psychotropic drugs.

Sarjveladze said 411,000 people benefited from the chronic disease programme in 2025, a 29% increase compared with 2022, while the programme’s budget has grown by 83% to 68.6 million lari.

Addressing the issue of treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the minister said the government is closely monitoring developments but will not rush decisions without sufficient clinical evidence.

He noted that some newer therapies, including so-called exon-skipping drugs approved under accelerated procedures by the US Food and Drug Administration, have not been authorised by the European Medicines Agency, with limited data on their effectiveness cited as a key concern.

Sarjveladze said one such drug was rejected by the European regulator in 2018 due to insufficient evidence of benefit compared with placebo.

He identified another treatment, givinostat, as potentially more promising, noting that it has received accelerated approval in the United States and conditional authorisation in Europe in 2025. However, he said some countries, including France, have declined to fund the drug due to concerns over limited clinical benefit and possible serious side effects.

The minister added that further monitoring is ongoing across Europe, including investigations into reported deaths among patients using the therapy.

He also referred to vamorolone, a corticosteroid, as part of ongoing efforts to assess whether treatment protocols for Duchenne patients could be improved compared with existing therapies already in use in Georgia.

Sarjveladze said the ministry would act once reliable evidence becomes available, expressing hope that a safe and effective treatment option will emerge.