Health Minister Konstantinov: Prices of medicines to decline within two weeks

The decline of medicines prices will be accomplished within the next two weeks regardless of the way this is to happen, stated yesterday the Minister of Health, Doctor Stefan Konstantinov on BNT (Bulgarian National Television). He specified that the price decrease would not cover all drugs, but only those paid by the National Health Insurance Fund. According to the Minister, the cost reduction of some medicines may be between 50 70$. The VAT rate will not be decreased since the best option is for the prices of the drug producers to be reduced, indicated he. The mechanism for pricing of medicines without prescription remains the same and it will rely mainly on market forces and competition.

In fact, the mechanism for pricing will remain the same and it will be rely mainly on the market forces and competition. If pharmaceutical companies fail to make rebates, it will result in the undertaking of very austere legal actions, added Konstantinov. In his words, the Commission for Protection of Competition will verify if there are monopolistic companies in the supply of medicines and equipment for hospitals.

In fact, the availability of monopoly depends on the actual identity of the manufacturer, distributor and the actual number of chains of pharmacies holding definite parts of the market. Currently, there is ongoing inspection of the Health Ministry not only on the drugs but also on the equipment sold to hospitals. We know the exact dealers, who have won some definite auctions as well as the years in which this happened and the exact amount of revenue accumulated by them. As a result, only 2-3 major market players are registered along with many smaller ones, explained Stefan Konstantinov. When asked why the essential issue of the high prices of medicines was raised so late, the Minister acknowledged that he had familiarised himself with the problem a few weeks ago, while previously he had assigned this task to his Deputy, Gergana Pavlova. She would always inform him in due time without introducing changes in drug prices. He stated that he had not received a single lev as bonus and specified that Gergana Pavlova was remunerated with BGN 10,000 as bonuses, while Dessislava Dimitrova had received BGN 6,000.

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