Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday said the government would ensure “strict response” to alleged cases of mislabelling of affordable drugs by pharmacies, following an “alarming information" of a drug store characterising lower-cost medicines as being of low quality to customers.

Speaking at the weekly government meeting, Garibashvili said the government had received information on employees at PSP, one of the pharmaceutical store networks across Georgia, presenting drugs on sale in a manner that referred to products manufactured in Turkey and imported to Georgia in a recent government-initiated move to effect a reduction of domestic prices as being of lower quality than their more expensive alternatives.

"The reports said that when a customer enters the pharmacy and asks about a specific medical drug... the seller asks whether they want high-quality, expensive medicines or ‘low-quality’ Turkish medicines”, the PM said.

The government head called the alleged cases a “misleading of customers”, and said in case of repeated facts “very strict response” would follow the mischaracterisations, which he called “categorically unacceptable”.

In his turn, Georgian finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili said if the information was confirmed, the ministry of health would have a "strict response" to the alleged cases.