APMGR president Dragos Damian said Wednesday the clawback tax for the first quarter of 2012 is almost double the tax for the fourth quarter of 2011, which was 17%-20% of the sales of every producer. “Enforcing this tax will have very serious economic and social consequences,” eliminating certain drugs from the market and pushing producers of generic drugs into insolvency, he warned.
Damian argued that the clawback tax in its current form is unfair and unsustainable, because it is charged to producers, but computed according to the shelf price, which includes the distributor’s margin, the pharmacy’s margin and VAT. Furthermore, he said, the tax is a source of serious liquidity problems for companies, since they are required to pay the tax before being compensated by the National Health Insurance House.
Damian also explained that other states have encouraged the use of generic drugs and succeeded in lowering public spending, while providing healthcare to more patients. He argued that Romania should also support this sector, through a clawback formula that would encourage consumption of generic drugs and stimulate local investment in this field.
The members of APMGR account for 1.5% of the GDP every year, provide 8,000 direct jobs and 15,000 indirect jobs, many for high-skilled employees. In the last five years, these companies have carried out investments of more than 500 million lei (EUR112.45 million), the association said.
APMGR’s members include Actavis, AC Helcor, B. Braun, Biofarm, Dr. Reddy’s, Egis, Gedeon Richter, Krka, Labormed, Medochemie, Sandoz, Sanofi-Aventis, Sintofarm, Terapia Ranbaxy, Teva and Zentiva. (EUR1=RON4.4463)