Basic HTML Version
Trade with Greece
69
700 million euros. Less than a year later, in
February 2011, the prices of more than 3,400
products were reduced in order to further reduce
expenditure by 170 million euros. A new re-pricing
exercise took place in mid-2011, covering 6,500
products.
According to estimates, the austerity measures
led to the reduction of public pharmaceutical
expenditure by almost 1 billion euros in 2011,
while the Memorandum provides for a further
reduction by 2 billion euros in 2012-2013.
Market participants claim that, continually driving
down prices will have negative medium-term
effects on the local industry, as it will probably
lead to an increase in parallel exports (re-
exports), shortages in the domestic market and
the faster substitution of certain medicines with
newer and more expensive ones.
As stated above, one of the most serious prob-
lems faced by the sector is the delays in the pay-
ment of social security fund and hospital debts,
which, under conditions of economic crisis and
inexistent liquidity, might lead many companies to
an early grave.
“Debts accumulated at IKA and military hospitals
have reached explosive levels, coming close to
0.5 billion euros”, claims the SFEE in a recent
press release, stressing that “the situation
appears out of hand, especially at IKA”, since the
Fund “seems to have informally suspended pay-
ments to pharmaceutical companies”. According
to Association data, IKA’s total accumulated debts
for pharmaceuticals amounted to 343.5 million
euros by the end of 2011. In 2011, the Fund pur-
chased pharmaceuticals worth 313 million euros,
which means that the payments in arrears to sup-
pliers correspond to a period of more than a year.
Apart from these 313 billion euros, IKA also has-
n't paid 16.8% of the debts it accumulated in 2010
(when it purchased pharmaceuticals worth 276
million euros) and almost 8.8 million euros relat-
ing to purchases made prior to 2010.
Moreover, military hospital debts exceed 100 mil-
lion euros. This amount corresponds to purchas-
es made by these hospitals during a period of
more than two years.
“The accumulation of new debts, on top of past
debts which in the context of the PSI are at risk of
not been paid after all, will spell catastrophe, and
it is quite probable that hundreds of pharmaceuti-
cal companies and firms in the healthcare sector
in general may already be facing the spectre of
going out of business”, stated the Association's
President, D. Filiotis. “The bonds that the govern-
ment issued to pharmaceutical companies in set-
tlement of their overdue claims are currently at
risk of becoming worthless.”
It should be noted that in late 2010 the State and
the sector's companies reached an agreement
concerning the payment of the huge debts accu-
mulated by hospitals during 2007-2009 with
three-year non-interest bearing bonds. The total
”
“
According to ELSTAT data,
almost 10,500 pharmacies
operated in Greece during
2009, of which 4,000 in
Attica and 1,380 in the pre-
fecture of Thessalonica. The
number of pharmacies has
increased in the past few
years, since it was slightly
above 9,600 as late as 2006.