Romania Drugstore Prices To See Average 10% Decrease As Of April 1

The decrease in drug prices, only for the first 100 most expensive drugs, will allow the state to save over EUR110 million, which will be used to extend national healthcare programs and implicitly reduce the number of ill people, Romanian health minister Ion Bazac told a press conference Wednesday, upon the coming into effect of Order 75/2009 of the health minister approving the norms regarding price calculation methods for human medicine.

 

The new medicine policy eliminates a series of malfunctions and ambiguities and the main measures target to align the minimum price to European prices and eliminate all exceptions (reference - 12 countries with the lowest medicine prices), support the generic prescription in Common International Denomination (DCI), eliminate gaps on drug market by updating local medicine prices and imported medicine prices in the same way, set prices using the sole currency exchange rate used on adopting the state budget, calculate all prices in Romanian lei, recalculate prices annually and revise trade markup for the entire medicine distribution chain and also eliminate gaps between local medicine producers and importers.

 

Professor doctor Irinel Popescu, head of the national health insurance house CNAS, also said during the press conference that the local medicine consumption rises to RON3 billion per year. 

 

List A includes 90% compensated drugs, 156 DCI. Drugs included in this category will see a price decrease of up to 69.7%. The price of antibiotics, the second best-sold medicine, will see a decrease of up to 45.5%, while prices for anti-inflammatory drugs will see a decrease of up to 45-63%.

 

List B includes 50% or 90% compensated drugs, 260 DCI. Drugs included in this category will see a price decrease of up to RON679/medicine box, which translates into a price decrease of up to 74%. Thus, anti-hypertensive medicine prices will see a decrease of up to 74%, infertility treatment  will see a decrease of up to RON700/ medicine box; anti-inflammatory medicine will see a decrease of up to 29%; medicine for osteoporoses treatment will see a decrease of nearly 24%, while anti-asthmatic medicine will see a decrease of up to 15%.