The Europe-Uzbekistan Association for Economic Cooperation (EUROUZ) successfully hosted the H1 2025 edition of its Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee Roundtable in partnership with Pharmaceutical Development Agency, gathering nearly 50 participants, including EUROUZ members, representatives of government agencies, regulatory authorities, and diplomatic missions.

The event welcomed officials from the Ministry of Health, Pharmaceutical Development Agency, Project Office for Healthcare Development under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Customs and Tax Committees, State Medical Insurance Fund, Center for Pharmaceutical Products Safety, as well as representatives from the Embassies of Switzerland and France, and the Delegation of the European Union to Uzbekistan, and other valued stakeholders.

The roundtable was co-moderated by Zafar Vakhidov, Partner at Vakhidov & Partners, EUROUZ Board Member, and Chair of the Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee, together with Olzhas Satybaldin, Government Affairs Head at AstraZeneca and Committee Co-Chair. Opening the discussion, EUROUZ Secretary General Oybek Shaykhov underscored the critical need for a transparent, modern, and internationally aligned healthcare regulatory system—emphasizing the value of adopting European best practices as a foundation for reform.The meeting reaffirmed the effectiveness of the EUROUZ Healthcare and Life Sciences Committee as one of the largest and most dynamic platforms for public-private dialogue in Uzbekistan's healthcare sector.

Key areas of discussion included:

• Improving cooperation between the EUROUZ Committee and Uzbek regulatory bodies to harmonize regulations for pharmaceuticals and medical devices with international standards.
• Addressing bottlenecks in the registration and certification processes, including optimizing communication between applicants and regulatory bodies and proposing a reduction in the number of samples required under recognition procedures.
• Highlighting ongoing reforms in deregulating medicine and medical device prices, supporting a more competitive and accessible pharmaceutical market.
• Exploring further development of universal healthcare insurance and social payment models to broaden healthcare access in Uzbekistan.
• Discussing intellectual property challenges, including regulation of parallel imports, brand name similarities, and proposals to streamline related regulatory requirements.
• Reviewing updates from state authorities regarding recent regulatory improvements, such as the introduction of a new electronic registration system, decentralization of laboratory testing across regional branches, strengthening of expert teams, and significant improvements in transparency for applicants.
• As part of ongoing regulatory reform, a draft government resolution proposes to simplify the recognition process for foreign pharmaceutical products by accepting only those approved by recognized international authorities. It also aims to address existing challenges related to product labeling and supplementary instructions.

Participants appreciated the progress made in accelerating registration timelines and acknowledged the need for continued collaborative efforts to further optimize procedures, particularly to facilitate access to innovative medicines, oncology treatments, and orphan drugs.

The event underscored the commitment of all stakeholders to maintaining open dialogue, promoting regulatory modernization, and strengthening Uzbekistan's healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in line with the country's long-term development goals.

EUROUZ, the Europe - Uzbekistan Association for Economic Cooperation is an international businesses association & a European Chamber of Commerce in Uzbekistan, working to provide comprehensive support to its members to understand their target market, build more robust business networks & enable a better dialogue with both public & private stakeholders. EUROUZ is a recognized European non-profit, non-commercial association with headquarters in Brussels & a full official branch office in Tashkent. Its members fully fund EUROUZ through membership fees. 

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