The health ministry estimates the regulation will bring down prices 15 to 20 percent, sure to be welcomed by consumers. Photo by Nathan Greenhalgh.

VILNIUS — On Wednesday the Lithuanian parliament overwhelmingly approved instituting a price cap on medicine that could decrease prices 15 to 20 percent.

The Seimas voted 80-1 with four abstentions in favor of the measure, which will take affect in April. Until then the Ministry of Health will begin compiling the average price of each medication authorized for sale in the country.

“Now the law has passed. Regardless of two and three months of this dawdling, drug prices will be in their real shape,” Minister of Health Algis Čaplikas told the press.

The law applies to both wholesale drug retailers and pharmacies and includes both prescription and over-the-counter medicines.

Čaplikas said the ministry had already begun recording prices to ensure that no mark-ups occur between now and April.