Health Minister to introduce important changes to list of reimbursed drugs

At a press conference on Friday, Health Minister Mariusz Lapinski said the law on reimbursing drug prices is to be amended. "We want to meet the demands of drugstore owners and to set official market prices which would prevent pharmaceutical companies from raising drug prices," he said. Deputy Health Minister Aleksander Naumann has announced that according to the amendments, pharmaceutical companies will have to report to the ministry on the discounts they give to wholesalers and drugstore owners for a given period. Jerzy Garlicki of the Pharmaceutical Companies Association in Poland is skeptical about the idea, but is ready to discuss the issue with the ministry. He added that for the sake of greater financial transparency it would be better to set not only official wholesale and retail prices, but also producer prices. Lapinski declared that within a month he will prepare an appendix to the list of reimbursed drugs. Among those drugs, whose prices are to fall by up to 10% are insulin, asthma, epilepsy, and various cancer medicines. (Gazeta Wyborcza, May 11-12, p. 7) K.S.