New Drug Price Regulations to Bring EUR 24M in Savings a Year
The Ministry of Health has drafted new drug price regulations aimed at reducing costs for the health purse. The ministry hopes to save some EUR 24m of the EUR 524.5m currently spent on prescription drugs at hospitals each year with the regulations that are to take effect on Wednesday.
The prices will depend on comparable prices in three selected countries: France, Germany and Austria. The ministry says Austria replaced Italy in the new regulations because it has a more transparent price structure and more favourable prices of patented drugs.
The important change is that the prices will now be regulated at the level of producers, while the wholesale margins will be fixed. The proponents say this will make the regulation of prices up to drug's arrival at hospital or pharmacies more simple and transparent.
Under the new regulations, the price of a patented drug is capped at 100% of the lowest price of that drug in the three comparable countries. Generics cannot be dearer than 85% of the average of mean prices of these drugs in the comparable countries.
The prices will be fixed twice a year (April and October). The prices will still be formed on the basis of negotiations with the National Health Insurance Institute (ZZZS). Exceptional changes in the price of a certain drug prompted by institute members' needs will be possible only with the minister's consent.
Health Minister Andrej Brucan says the savings made through the new regulations will be used to expand programmes of health services in areas where waiting lists are too long, as well as for the purchase of the most expensive, biological drugs.
Expenses on drugs currently constitute 25% of the national health care budget.
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