New Greek drug Price Bulletin now published, despite industry arguments

Following the intensive efforts of the Secretariat General of the Greek Ministry of Health, which is responsible for the pricing of medicines in the country, and the respective Directorate for Medicines and Pharmacies, the new Price Bulletin has now been uploaded on the web sites of the Ministry of Health and the Greek pharmaceutical industry association, the SFEE. Last year, the Greek government introduced draconian drug price cuts of 25% (The Pharma Letters passim.

The Ministry of Health implemented the law and more specifically Article 14 of Law 3840/2010, according to which the prices of medicines in Greece may not be lower than the average of the three lowest prices in the 22 European Union countries, said the SFEE in a press statement. Any errors will be corrected in the Corrective Price Bulletin, which must be issued within the next 20 days as provided by the law.

“It is true that the implementation of this law is a very harsh treatment and causes huge problems in the operation of the companies,” the SFEE stated, adding: “The ongoing effort to compress the prices of medicines and the one-sided focus of the State on medicines and particularly on prices, does not constitute a solution for the rationalization of health care expenditure.