According to European Observatory on Health Care Systems' document "Health Care Systems in Transition: Georgia", the black market trade is estimated to form around 20% of total drug imports into the country.

It is not uncommon that the stories about fake or poor quality drugs hit the headlines almost in every FSU country, like a story about a counterfeit Rocephin (Ceftriaxone) in Georgia. The Russian Ministry's of Health website gives a regular update on counterfeit and poor quality medicines, but not all ministries of health in other FSU countries do the same.

Uncertainty about the quality of drugs is one factor, which promotes doctors to prescribe new (and usually more expensive) drugs - they think that when the drug is new, the forgers have not enough time to produce a counterfeit.