“We have a study conducted by KPMG last year that shows implementing a few simple measures encouraging the use of generics would lead to savings of EUR100 milliona year in Romania, both for patients and the public healthcare system, if the generics usage rate were to increase from the current 65% to 80%. That wouldn’t be a major increase but would save a significant amount of money that could be used in other areas of the healthcare sector,” Mihai said at the MEDIAFAX Talks about Competition conference.
He added the legislation in Romania discriminates against generics producers, which has a negative impact on competition. It takes over 250 days for a generic drug to be cleared for market in Romania.
“Each lost day after patent expiry entails higher spending for the public system and always for patients, who must pay a lot out of pocket,” said Mihai.
He also said the generics market is very affected by the clawback tax, which is always on the rise. The tax increased from 14.5% in the third quarter of 2013 to 21% in the same period this year.
APMGR consists of Actavis, AC Helcor, B. Braun Pharmaceuticals, Biofarm, Dr. Reddy’s, Desitin Pharma, Egis, Fresenius Kabi, Gedeon Richter, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Infomed Fluids, Krka, Labormed, Magistra CC, Medochemie, Sandoz, Terapia-Ranbaxy, Teva and Zentiva.