Pharmaceutical Manufactures Protest Greek Price Reductions

It was previously reported in E-TIPS that Greece was expecting to introduce significant price cuts for its publically funded drugs as part of its austerity measures. These cuts have now been implemented and on average equate to a 20% price reduction per drug. The cuts were met by protests from approximately 50 pharmaceutical companies, who reiterated concerns about the impact on pricing in other European states, due to parallel importation laws and the use of Greece as a reference market in price-setting. Some Greek pharmacists have reported shortages of a number of drugs, allegedly due to an increase in parallel exportations attributed to the new pricing regime. For commentary, see: http://tinyurl.com/24c37ky Summary by: Michael Migus