YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–At its meeting January 28 the Parliamentary Committee for Social Affairs–Health and Nature Protection discussed bills on amending laws of the Republic of Armenia "On the prophylactics of AIDS" and "On the state and official secrets." The initiative of drawing up both bills belongs to Parliament member Victor Dallakian.
The first bill specifies the powers of the government in the prophylactics of AIDS and stipulates that only licensed state-run medical establishmen’s have the right to be engaged in AIDS prophylactics and treatment–which means that all funds obtained from the treatment will be transferred to the state budget.
Since the current Law on State and Official Secrets does not contain a provision under which medical discoveries are considered state secrets–an amendment is suggested to the Law according to which in certain cases the government will make exceptions.
Disagreeing with this approach–representatives of the Ministries of National Security and Justice who attended the Committee meeting pointed out the fact that the government has no right to treat patients with Armenicum–as this right can be received only with the consent of the authors of the discovery–whereas the discovery itself has not yet been patented.
The Committee agreed with the issues raised by the authors of the bills and–after being approved–both the bills will be submitted to Parliament.