The prices of 850 medicines are increasing from today, with the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, speaking of “price adjustments to the average of the 2 lowest prices in the Eurozone”, clarifying that there will be no charge for patients.
“The relevant headlines about the financial burden of patients with €30,000,000 are completely misleading. These drugs, due to their below cost price, were either chronically in short supply or completely withdrawn,” the minister says in a post on X.
“There will be no burden on the patients, because the patients necessarily replaced these drugs with other much more expensive drugs and ended up paying more money,” he clarifies.
The post
“As of today, the price increases given to various cheap medicines are valid.
The increases resulted from a long-term, two-stage, transparent process carried out by @eof_gr.
As a rule, these are price adjustments to the average of the 2 lowest prices in the Eurozone, for drugs whose prices had been fixed for the last 10 years, due to reductions implemented during the crisis.
The adjustments were applied with strict criteria and related to unique medicines, irreplaceable, which are in long-term shortages and are procured through IFET at significantly higher prices.
In addition, the adjustments mainly concerned economic treatments, the replacement costs of which were much higher than the increases given.
These price adjustments ensure:
- patients’ immediate access to economic treatments, with low participation costs,
- the reduction of treatment costs
- and the protection of public health.
Typical examples are the following preparations:
- LASIX: Anti-hypertensive drug, producer price increased from €1.35 to €1.89
- T3: Drug for Hypothyroidism, whose producer price increased from €1.59 to €4.79
- MILITHIN: Antipsychotic drug, producer price increased from €2.85 to €5.22
- URSOFALK: Medicine for Cholelithiasis, the producer price increased from €6.55 to €8.48
- ETOPOSIDE: Oncology drug, whose producer price increased from €8.11 to €22.88
The relevant headlines about the financial burden on patients of €30,000,000 are completely misleading.
These Medicines, due to their below cost price, were either in chronic shortage, or in complete withdrawal.
Remember how many times you’ve looked for various drugs yourself and couldn’t find them, or how many publications you’ve read about the shortages of cheap drugs.
We solved this problem today.
The companies that produce them in Greece have already increased their production, due to the new prices, and the import companies (eg for ETOPOSIDE), while they had withdrawn them, are bringing them back to the Pharmacies.
There will be no burden on the patients, because the patients necessarily replaced these drugs with other much more expensive drugs and ended up paying more money.
That is, the calculations reported in the publications calculate the old and the new price, but do not calculate the cost to the patient of replacing them with other, more expensive drugs.
I thank EOF for completing this process with such transparency that in the end there was not a single complaint from any company, either for injustice against them or for favoring someone else.
From today, the price increases that were given to various cheap medicines are valid.”
The increases came about after a long-term, two-stage, transparent process that Mr @eof_gr.
As a rule, these are price adjustments to the average of the 2 lowest prices in the Eurozone,… pic.twitter.com/BWTTOW6qui
— Adonis Georgiadi (@AdonisGeorgiadi) August 26, 2024
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