The changes were brought through an emergency ordinance, said the sources.
They added the clawback tax will represent two thirds of the market share registered by a drug producer and one third of the medicine market’s growth pace.
Until now, the clawback tax was computed taking into account the total drug consumption, and not the market share of each drug producer.
According to the sources, the shelf price of drugs will also be considered when computing the tax.
In October, pharmaceutical companies asked the International Monetary Fund to urge Romania’s Government to reduce the clawback tax to zero for generic drugs, allow at least 210 days for its payment and no longer charge it on prices including VAT and distribution margin.
According to the sources, the IMF officials asked the industry representatives to present methods used in the calculation of such taxes in other states and assured them they would have a new talk with the Government in light of this new data.
The clawback system was introduced in the fall of 2009 and required all drug producers selling on the Romanian market to contribute quarterly to the public healthcare system 5%-11% of their revenue from the sale of products used by the national healthcare programs, included on the list of discounted/free medicine, or used in hospitals.
At the time, the companies complained they were being overtaxed, while the Government eventually admitted that the system was ineffective, having collected only 5% of the projected amount.
IMF mission chief Jeffrey Franks said, in August, that the Government should replace the clawback tax in the healthcare system with a new version and implement the proposal for co-payment as soon as possible.
In September, the authorities announced a new version of the tax, whereby drug producers would pay a quarterly tax according to drug consumption. The National Health Insurance House was to inform every distributor of the percentage owed to the budget, according to a certain formula.