Irakli Lekvinadze, Chairman of the Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency (GCCA), delivered remarks at the OECD Global Forum on Competition in Paris, France.
The Forum, organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), brought together heads of competition authorities from a wide range of jurisdictions, alongside representatives of international and regional organizations as well as the business community.
Irakli Lekvinadze addressed a high-level session focused on competition in the healthcare sector, where he shared Georgia’s experience with participants from nearly 100 countries.
According to him, the recommendations issued by the GCCA as part of its pharmaceutical market monitoring played a pivotal role in shaping key reforms within Georgia’s healthcare sector. These reforms have been instrumental in eliminating coordinated practices in the market, thereby enhancing consumer access to pharmaceutical and healthcare services, while also improving overall market transparency and efficiency.
Irakli Lekvinadze further emphasized the notable outcomes achieved in the pharmaceutical sector through close and effective collaboration with the Government of Georgia and the Ministry of Health. He noted that, as a result of these reforms, including the introduction of reference pricing, patients’ annual savings on medicines reached to approximately USD 110–115 million in 2024. Moreover, he highlighted the Agency’s successful identification of concerted practices in the oncology medicines segment and the subsequent imposition of fines on the responsible undertakings.
At present, the medical services market is under ongoing monitoring, with the results scheduled for publication in 2026. In a market characterized by the significant presence of large holding groups, stringent oversight of market concentrations is being maintained. Between 2020 and 2025, a total of nine concentrations were approved across all areas of vertical integration.
Furthermore, Chairman of the Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency, Irakli Lekvinadze served as the moderator of the session titled “Competition Risks Across the Pharmaceutical Value Chain: Pricing, IP and Vertical Integration“. He outlined Georgia’s progress and shared the Agency’s best practices in this domain. It was noted that, the World Bank and the International Competition Network (ICN) recognized the GCCA’s decisions in the pharmaceutical sector as among the best globally. During the session, representatives from various countries shared their experiences in the regulation of competition and the implementation of enforcement measures within the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets.
Irakli Lekvinadze was accompanied at the Global Forum on Competition by Sergo Sanikidze, Head of the Consumer Rights Protection Department, and Salome Kavtaradze, Head of the Legal Department of the GCCA.
