Plevris: Only the prices of extremely cheap drugs will increase
The price of pharmaceuticals will only increase for the very cheapest medications, where the price does not cover production costs due to price hikes in energy, Health Minister Thanos Plevris clarified while talking to the state broadcaster ERT on Wednesday morning.
If these medicines were withdrawn, he added, consumers would be forced to seek much more expensive versions.
As an example, he cited a well-known generic antibiotic produced in Greece, sold at a unit price of 2.20 euros, which cost 2 euros a unit to produce. "Obviously, there needs to be an increase here that will be decided by the appropriate organs, of 20 or 30 cents, that will be almost entirely covered by EOPYY," he said.
"Increases will only take place in these categories based on cost estimates," Plevris noted, while blaming the previous SYRIZA government for introducing a Eurozone-based pricing system that "scandalously favoured" more expensive drugs.
The minister explained that increases will be allowed for medications that might otherwise be withdrawn and that such increases were always given without any significant impact on consumers.
On the current shortages of medicines, Plevris said that there were no problems in hospitals or EOPYY pharmacies and that the issue chiefly affected private pharmacies, and could be solved by seeking out non-brand-name equivalents.
"Here the shortage concerns brand medicines...wherever we have shortages that cannot be covered by the Greek market, orders will constantly be made by the Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Technology," he said, while adding that doctors, pharmacists and the National Organisation for Medicines will be kept up to date on which medications are in shortage and the available alternatives, so they can prescribe accordingly.
"We also said that for categories of medications that are currently prescribed and are in shortage, not over-the-counter medicines...the prescription will done electronically so that there is better monitoring," he added.