Hausner looks for compromise over conflict with pharmaceutical companies

Economy Minister Jerzy Haunser will soon propose to settle the government’s differences with pharmaceutical companies. He suggested that the state would drop its lawsuit against drug companies for excessive margins, provided that they pay a donation to the National Health Fund (NFZ) and write-off the money owed to them by hospitals. Pharmaceutical firms used to charge high margins on drugs sold to their Polish subsidiaries, which obtained refunds from the Health Funds and then received rebates from their foreign parent companies, thus profiting at the expense of the state. Despite an unfavorable verdict of the Constitutional Tribunal on the matter, the government believed that prosecuting the companies would net the Treasury billions of złoty in compensation and penalties. However, in a secret document addressed to members of Parliament dated July 28, the Finance Ministry admitted that there is a chance that drug producers would have the upper hand in court. Pharmaceutical firms did not reject Hausner's idea, but said they need to know more details before they can take a position. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 24) T.J.