Merkel, a «dealer» for Ratiopharm in Greece

As first revealed by newsbomb.gr, during Merkel's visit to our country, the German chancellor demanded from Antonis Samaras, the Greek Prime Minister, to adopt a new prescription system that, if indeed adopted, would lessen the life expectancy of Greek people! The specific system focuses solely on the cheapest priced medicine, disregarding the quality standards and, thus, de facto throwing the high quality medicine (as more expensive) out of the pharmacies, leaving Greek market to be monopolized by the cheap Third World anonymous generics. A system known –by international studies- to limit the life expectancy in the few countries where it has already been adopted. A system that will flood Greek market with controversial anonymous generics, already criticized by the German Press itself for their dangerous side-effects.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Merkel insists on imposing the specific system on Greek people. Why? The Greek political weekly "To Choni (The Funnel)" presents a story that highlights what lies behind Merkel's plans.

The newspaper writes the story of Teva, the Israeli owned pharmaceutical giant that leads the world market of cheap, anonymous generics, and has often been in the centre of controversy, after the American authorities have found its medicine adulterated. Teva bases its production facilities in Third World countries (such as China, India, Puerto Rico etc) and produces anonymous, cheap generic medicine, far away from the controlling mechanisms of the European Union. Therefore the Greek and European branded medicine, adopting the strictest quality standards are not able to compete with the anonymous generics when the only criterion is the price, and the quality is totally disregarded.

So, if Mrs. Merkel way is to be adopted, the Greek pharmaceutical market will soon be monopolized by the cheap, anonymous and controversial generics that Teva produces more than any other industry in the world. What’s the connection between Teva and Mrs. Merkel? As the newspaper “To Choni” points out, Teva has bought (in a $5 bn. deal, on March 2011) one of the leading actors in the German generics sector, the German pharmaceutical Ratiopahrm employing 5,000 workers in Germany. Thus, while Mrs. Merkel is insisting in a system that will be de facto promoting anonymous generics in Greece (such as Teva’s), the German Chancellor is in fact promoting German business in Greece! In other words, Mrs. Merkel is actually trying to impose controversial medicine on Greek people, caring only for the interests of the German industry and its workers!