Parallel exports of new compensated medicines could be interrupted for six months

Romania’s Ministry of Health plans to prohibit for six months the parallel exports of drugs on the new list of compensated medicines in order for patients to benefit from their treatments in due time, a ministry’s press release informs. The announcement was made during a meeting between the Minister of Health, Eugen Nicolaescu, the Secretary of State, Adrian Pana, the President of CNAS (the National House of Health Insurance), Cristian Busoi, and the Director of ANMDM (the National Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices) on one side and representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, on the other side, meeting which was held on Saturday, January 11. 

Besides the new list of compensated medicines and the parallel export, there were approached other stringent issues such as the clawback tax, the discount prices or the medicine distribution margins for drugstores and distributors.

Also, in respect to the introduction of the new list of compensated drugs, the Minister of Health communicated the authorities’ intention of updating it every six months in 2014 and then quarterly in 2015, in accordance with the EU regulation, so that the Romanian patients can have access to the innovative treatments they need, is stated by the same press release. Additionally, Nicolaescu said that the ministry aims at creating an evaluation structure for medical technologies meant to streamline the revision process of that list. 

As for the differential clawback tax, ARPIM’s (The Romanian Association of International Medicine Manufacturers) representatives proposed that each company – either it is an original drug manufacturer or a generic medicine manufacturer – pays a tax based on individual consumption reflected into the health insurance system. So, the responsible authorities and the representatives of the pharmaceutical industry will follow up on this meeting within the current month and discuss further on these subjects in order to possibly reach a final proposal agreed by both parties by the end of January 2014, according to the Ministry’s informing.