Health Minister Rafila: Ministry's drug pricing policy needs to be revised

Health Minister Alexandru Rafila declared on Thursday that the Ministry's drug pricing policy should be revised, pointing out that Romania's 20 drug manufacturers bring in 1.5 percent of GDP, Agerpres reports.

"It is very clear that the current economic mechanism is not functional enough as to render the production of generic drugs attractive. Let us not forget that 1.5 percent of Romania's GDP comes from the 20 generic drug manufacturers that exist in our country. The Romanian state owns just one of them, all the others are privately-held, with Romanian and foreign shareholders - this doesn't matter after all. They operate in Romania and that's good, but obviously we must ensure the functioning of this industry that contributes a significant share of GDP. I believe the Health Ministry's pricing policy should be revised to a certain extent, because we are in a paradoxical situation. Seeking savings, we end up paying more money by this very simple mechanism: we keep cutting prices for certain drugs that disappear from the market and which are the cheapest, they are no longer distributed so that the next drug on the list comes into use, which is much more expensive. At the end of the day we pay more, instead of less money. It is clear that we need to find an adequate mechanism here," Rafila told the national conference 'Health Alert! How to Remove Barriers to Patients' Access to Medicines'.

He pointed out that a quick solution must be found to allow the population's access to generic medicines.