The State must treat Health and Medicine as the main pillars of society and the economy
Athens, 8 April 2025.- The underfunding of pharmaceutical expenditure – as a result of the multi-year economic crisis and the memoranda – and the delays in the initiation and efficiency of important structural measures, (such as the implementation of locked therapeutic protocols, the digital patient file, patient registries, the increase in the penetration of generics, as well as the adoption of new models for the evaluation and reimbursement of new treatments), led to high mandatory returns by pharmaceutical companies and created barriers for the entry of new medicines into our country.
As a result, for the period 2020 – 2023, only 1 in 5 new innovative drugs that could have come to Greece, were finally launched in our country (according to the most recent studies by IQVIA).
Pharmaceutical companies have now reached a breaking point: since 2022, the problem has intensified to such an extent that we observe the only phenomenon in the world where state funding is less than the mandatory reimbursements of the pharmaceutical industry. In practice, the pharmaceutical care of Greeks is mainly financed by those who make medicines available on the market.
We are in the month of March 2025 and only recently we received notes on the amounts of the 2023 clawback, which in fact have serious errors, while we still have not received any notes for 2024. The lack of transparency and stability and the constantly upward trend of mandatory returns, especially for hospital-use medicines, causes us intense concern and concern, for some companies the issue of overall sustainability has been raised.
Innovation is being punished in an industry that offers so much to the health system, the economy, research, the labour market and society, with excessive overtaxation that slows growth.
The pharmaceutical sector has demonstrated remarkable adaptability and resilience in recent years, contributing significantly to the national economy, with 120,000 jobs and an impact on 3.2% of GDP.
To fully exploit this dynamic, strategies are needed to enhance the competitiveness of the pharmaceutical industry. Our country needs immediate reforms, namely:
- Gradual redefinition of public funding for medicines and at the same time improving resource efficiency through digital tools and controls.
- Limit (cap) on mandatory refunds (clawback) and address the problem of exorbitant refunds with co-responsibility between the State and the pharmaceutical industry.
- Strengthening the pharmaceutical industry’s footprint in the national economy, with more incentives for investments in production, as well as research and development, and with more collaborations between Greek and international companies, as well as University Institutions.
The cooperation we have with the Government must be translated into more tangible results and further strengthened. The Minister of Health has already taken into account several issues that we have raised and is implementing a package of measures, the results of which we are waiting to see. Although the current government has increased funding for medicines more than any other in the past, it does not cover even half the huge funding gap of the past. This remains the main reason why not enough new drugs are coming to our country. At the same time, however, this Government has not worked enough to improve the efficiency of the available resources (control measures, data evaluation, consequences for offenders, etc.) and this is where developments need to be accelerated.
The implementation of sustainable solutions that will serve the needs of society, patients and the economy remains imperative and the State must prioritize health and medicine, more with actions and less with words. And let’s not forget that better Health means better Economy.
