BRATISLAVA, June 9, (SITA) — Slovak Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik (KDH) believes that the disapproval of pharmaceutical companies of the draft bills that the Health Ministry has submitted does not result from their interest to protect patients but their pursuit of profit. “They are obstructing the introduction of order in drug policy,” announced the minister at a press conference on Thursday. He says that drug producers are also exerting pressure on the ministry and the Cabinet. “I hope parliamentary deputies will not yield to this lobbying,” said Uhliarik.
The minister called the arguments of pharmaceutical companies against the tabled changes to drug policy fiction-based. He rejected the opinion that generic prescriptions, namely prescribing generic active substances instead of brand-name drugs, would cause chaos because physicians will not know what drug patients actually use. He emphasized that generic substitutions are already used today, which means that pharmacists can give out another drug with the same active substance instead of a prescribed drug. “Physicians do not know at all now what drug patients actually receive,” warned Uhliarik, adding that this should change when health insurance companies inform physicians retrospectively of what drugs patients receive at pharmacies.
Pharmaceutical companies disagree with the proposed new draft bill on drugs. Representatives of associations of the pharmaceutical industry also expressed concerns about the course of action of the Health Ministry as well as the Cabinet’s Legislative Committee and the Cabinet in the process of creation of laws. They claim that the health Ministry bypassed the standard legislative process with the draft bill on the scope and conditions of payments for drugs, medical aids and dietetic food, which the Cabinet passed on Wednesday. The Association of Drug and Medical Aids Suppliers, Association of Generic Drugs Producers and the Slovak Association of Pharmaceutical Companies on Research and Development claim that the bill has not passed interdepartmental review at all.
The bill on the scope and conditions of payments for drugs, medical aids and dietetic food, which the Cabinet passed on Wednesday, should also introduce referencing of drug prices at the level of the second lowest price in the European Union, categorization of special medical material and temporary and conditioned categorization as of November of this year. The draft bill also creates space for a faster entry of drugs to the Slovak market, and introduces electronic communication in categorization and pricing. It also deals with the lack of availability of drugs.
Other subjects have also expressed reservations against the tabled draft bill on the scope and conditions of payments for drugs and draft bill on drugs. Ambassadors of seven countries have asked Slovak Prime Minister Iveta Radicova in a letter to make changes to these bills. Radicova informed that the letter was signed by diplomats from countries with very strong pharmaceutical companies: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and the United States. “I consider it pure lobbying. It is beyond diplomacy and political decency,” she stated. The prime minister reported that no concrete facts were included in the letter, except for a request for the government’s respect for the demands of pharmaceutical companies.
SITA