By George Psyllides
THE HEALTH ministry on Wednesday announced an 8.5 per cent cut in the wholesale price of medicines starting on June 29.
The decision will affect 2,883 medicines included in the pricelist with 5,374 items.
The prices of the rest will remain the same since they are products whose wholesale price is equal or smaller than €10, as well as non-prescription meds.
The total reduction in the wholesale process, including the January 12 update of the pricelist, which saw a 15 per cent cut, was 23 per cent, the ministry said.
Specifically, there were cases of antibiotics, hypertension and cholesterol meds, where the drop ranged from 26.8 pr cent to 55.8 per cent.
If a patient with high cholesterol paid €55.56 in 2014 to buy Zocor 40mg and Atacand 16mg, they would be paying €37.39 after June 29 – also taking into account the January reduction.
Updating the meds pricelist would be done annually, the ministry said, instead of every two years.
The objective is the faster adoption of reductions in the reference countries, the ministry said.
“The benefit would be double since cuts in the wholesale process also reduced state expenditure for the purchase of medicines,” the ministry said.
Drugs prices are set by a committee on the basis of prices in four ‘base’ countries in the European Union – the most expensive, the least expensive, and two medians.
The ministry said a review of the pricing policy would take place every two years instead of four.
The four-year period resulted in the prices taking too long to reflect international developments in the pricing of medicines.
“The health minister’s priority and objective is to secure the uninterrupted access to medicines with affordable prices,” the ministry said. “Achieving this is of the highest importance, especially in light of the implementation of the national health scheme.”
The announcement was met with grave concern by the Cyprus Association of Research and Development Pharmaceutical Companies (KEFEA). In a statement, KEFEA said the measure “may create problems in regards to the uninterrupted availability of medicines in the Cypriot market”.
The association said it has already expressed these concerns in writing to the Health minister in a letter.
“KEFEA has informed the Ministry that its member companies cannot commit, nor ensure, that further price reductions […] would not lead to the withdrawal of medicinal products,” the statement said.
At the same time, acknowledging the “particular economic situation in Cyprus”, KEFEA proposed that the expensive country be removed from the basket of reference countries, thus allowing prices to be determined based on two average and two cheap countries.
“Unfortunately, the Health ministry did not take this proposal into consideration,” KEFEA said.
