Greek parliament this week passed a health ministry amendment amid controversy over an article on price reductions in pharmaceuticals.
As a result, a price ceiling of 50 per cent – or the average of the lowest prices in three other EU countries, whichever is less – is being imposed on brand-name drugs. It also orders that all generic drugs are priced at a maximum of 65 per cent of their off-patent equivalents.
The main opposition party Syriza had unsuccessfully requested that the article on drug prices – one of five articles in the amendment – be voted on separately, as they disagreed with it. The party had raised concerns about the quality and standards of generic drugs.
The amendment was passed in a roll-call vote with 164 in favour, 72 against, and 10 abstentions, out of a total of 246 MPs present.
Speaking to the daily Kathimerini, National Organisation for Medicines (EOF) President Dimitris Lintzeris rubbished claims that generic drugs were unsafe. “Nobody has the right to create doubts in Greek people’s minds about the quality of medicines,” he said. “Checks are carried out at many levels: at factories, at warehouses, on new products, in Greece and abroad.”
The vote was preceded by a bitter dispute between Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis and Syriza, in which the main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras became embroiled. Both sides accused each other of representing vested interests.
A recent OECD report found that in 2011, Greece spent far above the per capita average on drugs: about $673 was spent per person – a 10 per cent reduction on the previous year – in Greece compared to an OECD average of $483.
Source: enetenglish, ekathimerini