English
Pharmaceutical healthcare of all citizens is at risk!
Extraordinary General Assembly of SFEE – November 27, 2013
• The target of the €2 bn. for 2014 is unattainable: Pharmaceutical healthcare of all citizens is at great risk, in case of further decreases
• The adoption of horizontal collection measures, instead of structural ones, leads the industry to a dead-end and punishes innovation and Greek patients
• Outstanding debts of €1.2 bn. to pharmaceutical companies
Athens, November 27, 2013 – In a crucial period for our country, the Extraordinary General Meeting of SFEE was held today (69 companies-members: 31 Greek & 38 multinational subsidiaries) and unanimously concluded the following: The situation in the pharma sector has reached a full dead-end due to the constant decreases in the pharmaceutical budget, which are effected via segmental, horizontal and unfair collection measures and not via the necessary structural changes.
SFEE, with a deep sense of its responsibility, hereby informs public opinion that the provision of pharmaceutical healthcare is at breaking point, and for that reason the unfeasible target for the further decrease of the 1st degree pharmaceutical healthcare at €2 bn. in 2014 can in no way be achieved without causing serious problems to the access of Greek patients to their therapies. In practice, if the said target is adopted, it will lead the per capita pharmaceutical expenditure in Greece to the half of the average of the EU 28 countries!
The Ministry of Health, instead of orienting itself to unfeasible scenarios for horizontal measures, must, even at such a late stage, proceed with the readjustment of the pharmaceutical budget at €2.25 – €2.3 bn. for 2014 so that:
– Access of patients to existing and new therapies is ensured. The price of no medicinal product should be lower than the average of the 3 lowest prices in the EU countries. Moreover, according to the commitments of the Ministry, the new products whose marketing has been delayed for almost 3 years must be priced not later than the beginning of December. In addition, the medicinal products that were priced on August 6 and whose inclusion in the positive list delays without any valid reason, must be immediately reimbursed.
– The penetration of medicines (off-patent & generics) whose price is lower than the reference price is increased in order to produce further savings in the pharma budget.
– The immediate implementation of therapeutic protocols / registries is accelerated.
The patient and the Greek citizen need now more than ever to remain at the center of every policy and every decision. Form our side, during the last 4 years we proved that in practice with our proposals and our actions and we reduced the public pharmaceutical expenditure more than 50% while the outstanding debts of the State amount to more than €1.2 bn.!