BUCHAREST, 1st August – A possible exclusion of drugs with prices under 10 RON from the list of reimbursed drugs would mean an indirect “over charge” imposed on patients, an infringement of the accepted government program and on medium term an increase in public expenditure, according to the The Associationof Romanian Producers of Generic Medicines (APMGR).
“The immediate effect of exclusion of drugs priced under 10 RON from the list of reimbursed drugs would be on one hand the reduction of access to treatment for patients with low income, and on the other hand, it would mean an increase on medium term of public expenditure. More precisely, the patients would put up with higher costs from the copayment system and the state will have to reimburse more expensive drugs, has explained the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of APMGR, Laurentiu Mihai.”
In fact the budgetary impact of reimbursed drugs with prices under 10 RON is reduced, these representing only 11,4 % from the value of sums paid by state in the first semester of 2012, according to the data provided by Cegedim, a market research and analysis company.
At the same time, the data from Cegedim show that in the same period the drugs with prices under 10 RON represented 56.2 % from the volume of medicines on medical prescription used in Romania, a fact which indicates the large use of these, especially by the population with low income. In clear terms, if in Romania 400 million boxes of drugs on medical prescription are used, removing those under 10 RON products from the reimbursed drug list would mean cancelling reimbursement for more than half of these.
„We believe thata responsible approach is necessary, in accordance with the health problems recorded nationwide, taking into consideration that medicines priced under 10 RON are used to treat widespread diseases throughout Romania. For instance, regarding the cardiovascular diseases, Romania holds one of the leading places at EU level, – two of three Romanians dying from this cause; at every 30 minute a Romanian has an acute heart attack, and one out of ten is not surviving. According to statistics 7 million Romanians suffer from cardiovascular disease”, added Laurentiu Mihai.
The list of drugs with prices under 10 RON contains products that cover a wide range of therapeutical categories.
- Over a half of the ANTIBIOTICS (58.5%) on medical prescription used in Romania have prices under 10 RON. However, these represent only 11.6 % from the reimbursement effort of the Romanian state for this type of medicines.
- 43,5% of the MEDICATION on medical prescription used in RomaniaFOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES are priced under 10 RON and represent 13.7 % from the sums reimbursed for these conditions.
- 51,4% of the MEDICATION on medical prescription used in Romania for DIGESTIVE SYSTEM CONDITIONS are priced under 10 RON and represent only 12.5 % from the sums reimbursed for these conditions.
- 70 % of the MEDICATION on medical prescription used in Romania for NERVOUS SYSTEM CONDITIONS are priced under 10 RON and represent only 13.9 %from the sums reimbursed for these conditions.
- 80% of the MEDICATION on medical prescription used in Romania for anti-rheumatic conditions are priced under 10 RON and represent only 25.1 % from the sums reimbursed for these conditions.
- The member companies from APMGR view with growing concern the recent statements from Vasile Cepoi, the Health Minister who announces the possible inclusion of amounts spent on “cheap medicines and easily treatable diseases” in the optional system of health insurance, not in the basic package. Such a measure would limit the access of pensioners and reduced income families to medical treatment as the financial effort from those would increase considerably due to the cancellation from reimbursement of affordable priced medicines.
- The present Executive was proposing in its government program to encourage the use of generics, with a goal to allow access to as many as possible patients to pharmaceutical treatment. “In fact, we see that the Health Ministry is not truly preoccupied to optimize expenditure in the health system. The directions announced risk to produce some completely opposed effects to those objectives announced of increasing generics consumption, reducing budget spending and access for population to the health system”. Concluded Laurentiu Mihai.
The Generic manufacturers announce failure of talks with the government about changing the clawback tax: hundreds of affordable medicines are likely to disappear from the market.
The Government represented by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finance, rejected any proposal made ??by the delegates of the representatives companies of Generic Drug Manufacturers Association from Romania, ignoring economic and social effects of extremely serious charge that it produces;
The Generic manufacturers, most of them having production unist in Romania, have no other choice but insolvency or re-evaluating its product portfolio: hundreds of affordable medicines is likely to disappear from the market;
APMGR asks IMF and the European Commission to decide on the imposing public clawback tax in its present form in the context of the serious effects it can have on the health state of the population of Romania.