SFEE Announcement
Athens, September 28th, 2022.- Yesterday’s much-anticipated meeting of representatives of the pharmaceutical sector with the Ministry of Health was fruitless.
Medicines are not a high priority for the Ministry of Health and the Government, and therefore neither is the viability and predictability of pharmaceutical businesses.
Once again, it was registered that the Ministry of Health considers the pharmaceutical companies solely responsible for the upward trend in pharmaceutical expenditure and does not see the need to readjust the public contribution to it, as a result of which it charges ever greater refunds to be paid by the companies, refunds that exceed 60% of their SALES.
The Government – unlike other European countries – ignores the increased pharmaceutical needs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ignores the increasing trend of important chronic diseases, ignores the increasing trend of neoplasms, ignores the increased therapeutic value of new innovative treatments, and maintains for nine (9) consecutive years the underfunding of public expenditure while applauding the treatment decisions and choices made by doctors. Why shouldn’t it, after all it has decided, not to pay for them but have the pharmaceutical companies foot the bill.
Flaunting the argument that we haven’t left the country or closed shop yet, “therefore we are resilient”, the Government has set as priority, not curtailing pharmaceutical expenditure on terms of real demand and consumption (and not with “creative” mathematics) or rational financing of public expenditure, but the reallocation of overruns between companies, proceeding to the breakdown of public expenditure on accounting terms, creating “patricians” and “plebeians”, favored and wronged.
Everyone has one’s own priorities. Our priority is covering the patients’ needs in medicines and we are proud to continue doing so in these difficult circumstances.
