Romanian media: Health scandal heats up amidst drug price revision request

In a recent interview with health Minister Nicolae Banicioiu and National Health Insurance House head Vasile Ciurchea, local Hotnews.ro highlights Romania’s tens of millions of euros loss because of irregularities in the system. It also covers the recent decision to index the price of drugs to other EU markets. Back in 2012, a British Institute warned the Romanian state it was paying five times higher prices for some subsidized drugs. The scandal is huge, writes Hotnews.ro, as the country's health ministers in the last five years kept a blind eye while many of the drug producers in Romania broke the law by not tagging local drug prices to other EU markets. Banicioiu and Ciurchea believe their predecessors are to blame, as they never informed the Prime Minister. The system itself is faulty – just two people manually check 6,200 drug price tags every 6 months. Ciurchea also says the risk for some drugs to disappear from the market is artificial, fueled by producers, distributors, and pharmacies. “No drug manufacturer can afford to leave a market like Romania, now on the up. Even if the producer makes less money this year, it will surely make more once the market goes back up,” said Ciurchea in the interview. By revising drug prices, the state estimates it will save some EUR 250 million in 2016, said the Health Minister. The new price registry for drugs, called CANAMED, should be published end-April, and will also compute increasing the exchange rate to the current RON 4.42 per EUR. editor@romania-insider.com