The revelation of the fictitious prescription ring by the Greek Police and the officers of EOPYY is welcomed by the Association of Pharmaceutical Enterprises of Greece (SFEE). In fact, he states that symbolically the Ministry of Health should reduce the clawback of the companies by 3.5 million euros – as well as the estimated amount of the fraud – for 2024, since this expense arose from the loopholes in the system and is not the product of real consumption.

The SFEE reiterates its request for the updating of the control mechanisms and the extension of controls, but also for the need for exemplary punishment of those who commit illegal acts without delay.

“Throughout the years, SFEE has been pressing the State to update the control mechanisms and extend controls to all participants in the creation of demand and consumption of all kinds of health services, including, of course, the prescription of medicines.

It is imperative that they be identified immediately and excluded from their participation in the health system, but also that those who siphon off its already insufficient resources are punished in an exemplary manner, and not that it takes 4 years or more for such wretched practices to be revealed”.

SFEE also states that “it is an indisputable fact that such frauds are at the expense of EOPYY, but it should be known that the financial burden resulting from them, at least with regard to the medicine, is paid by the pharmaceutical companies through the mandatory clawbacks ), since the state’s contribution to the pharmaceutical expenditure is specific, and determined by a closed budget.

However, it is also a fact that such practices worsen the already suffocating environment of underfunding public expenditure on medicine and contribute to depriving the Greek patient of new, innovative treatments whose entry into the country, under the current conditions, is not sustainable”.

He concludes that “it would be desirable for the Ministry of Health to decide to reduce the mandatory refunds of companies by 3.5 million euros (as well as the estimated amount of the fraud) for 2024, if only for symbolic reasons, since this expense arose from the loopholes of the system and is not a product of actual consumption. After all, through the mandatory reimbursements, the pharmaceutical companies finance the pharmaceutical expenditure with more than 3 billion euros”.