First meeting of Pharma Industries representatives with the new Minister of Health
Press Release
It is time we turned the page in the effective cooperation of all the involved institutions
to the benefit of patients and Public Health
Athens, September 21, 2021. – The first meeting of the new Minister of Health, Mr. Thanos Plevris, with representatives of all associations from the pharma industry was held yesterday, in a positive ambience, where all the participants have had a very constructive discussion.
The Minister referred to the commitments the country has taken, through the recovery plan, to curtail the soaring compulsory refunds the pharma industries pay, through the claw-back mechanism. He actually characterised the 2021 picture to-date as extremely difficult and mentioned that interventions must be made, so as to restrain the course of the pharmaceutical expenditure.
Special mention was made to the pharmaceutical expenditure of our uninsured co-citizens, for which efforts are made to secure funds from other sources.
Furthermore, the potential offered by the full digitization of systems and processes and the intensification of all forms of control and audits will be fully exploited. To that end, the immediate digitization and interface of all systems currently used for the prescription of medicines and consumables used for various diseases is considered sine qua non, as well as the creation of each citizen’s complete file pertaining to their medical history.
The pharma industry asks, in their turn, the Ministry of Health to pay heed to the proposals of the sector companies, so as to implement a well-balanced policy mix that will ensure:
- Sufficient funding of the pharmaceutical expenditure in all 3 aspects it contains: EOPYY expenditure, Hospital expenditure, EOPYY Medicines 1A
- Rationalization of the demand and increase of the effectiveness of existing resources
- Full digitization of systems and processes
- Securing innovative treatments entry in the country
- Generics penetration increase and support of local pharma manufacturing
- Maintenance and improvement of investment incentives, so as to promote the growth potential of the county
In order for all that to be achieved, the pharma sector has put at the disposal of the State all its forces for the adoption of a new, rational pharma policy that may function as a protection shield in a powerful health system.
