Romania’s Government yesterday repealed the current methodology for establishing the maximum prices of drugs, according to health minister Florian Bodog.

On Friday, he will sign a minister order introducing a new methodology for calculating drug prices. Bodog said that the price of innovative drugs whose patent expired will go down by 35%.

The decision was agreed upon with the Prime Minister and representatives of the associations of drug producers, distributors, and importers. The measure is part of the governing program, Bodog said.

At the moment, the local pharma market is going through a crisis because the large international pharma producers have threatened to withdraw thousands of drugs and vaccines from the market. They are unhappy with the authorities’ decision to cut drug prices. Moreover, the parallel drug exports have left fewer drugs available on the local market. Exportable pharma products can hardly be found.

There is also the danger that two-thirds of the drugs whose patent have expired may not be available in Romania due to the claw-back tax and new price cuts.

editor@romania-insider.com