2024-07-16 10:04:16
During the meeting on Monday, July 15, in the presence of the representative of the Prime Minister’s office, the representatives of the organizations emphasized that the main planned result of the reform is to make medicines more financially accessible to the citizens in solidarity with everyone, and not to reduce the viability of us, the local medicine supply stage – pharmacies and medicine supply companies, which will take place , if such an undeveloped and flawed reform comes into force.
“Here we are not only talking about whose and what income will decrease, we are talking about a potential shortage of medicines for children, mothers and grandmothers in remote regions of Latvia and about a critical decrease in the number of pharmacies – this is exactly what this ill-conceived reform includes,” emphasizes Kristīne Jučkoviča, Latvian Pharmaceutical Care executive director of the association.
It has already been reported that eight public organizations of the pharmaceutical industry, after getting acquainted with the intended amendments to the regulations on the principles of drug price formation, asked Prime Minister Evika Siliņa in a letter to stop their further progress, as well as to organize a meeting with the Prime Minister as soon as possible to explain the potential significant risks to the availability of drugs to patients contained in the project . The call was made by the Association of Latvian Pharmacists, the Association of Pharmacists, the Latvian National Drug Supply Association, the Latvian Pharmaceutical Care Association, the Latvian Drug Manufacturers Association, the Association of Free Pharmacists of Latvia, the Association of Small Pharmacies, the Association of Latvian Pharmacists, and clinical pharmacists also joined it.
Also, the Confederation of Latvian Employers, the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Association of Latvian Doctors, the Association “IMPACT 2040”, the Federation of Latvian Pensioners and other organizations and businessmen oppose the medicine price reform proposed by the Ministry of Health as not meeting the interests of the population.
Although the annotation of the Cabinet of Ministers’ regulation of October 25, 2005 on the principles of drug price formation mentioned that it had been discussed with the industry, public organizations emphasized that formal meetings were held regarding consultations, in which the ministry declared its intention, but later the following public organizations the objections and proposals had not been taken into account in essence and the meeting was organized late, at the last moment, only after the mentioned NGO’s letter to the Prime Minister.
NGO proposals for reform, in addition to those found on the legislation portal, also include an offer to immediately save 30 million euros in the system, which should be immediately injected into the list of compensable drugs for expanding the number of diagnoses paid for by the state, by equalizing the prices of the most expensive drug manufacturers to the level of Lithuania, as well as drugs already included in the KZS realization for one price, regardless of the diagnosis.
2024-07-16 10:04:16