Thanos Pleuris: The lack of medicines is a global problem

“The problem of the lack of medicines is a global problem due to low production and lack of raw materials, which our country faces to a lesser extent because it has domestic production, as accepted by the entire Greek and multinational pharmaceutical industry. In fact, unlike other countries, Greece has a full supply of drugs in the hospitals and pharmacies of the EOPYY and any shortages are only seen in the private pharmacies”, says the Minister of Health Thanos Pleuris in his announcement-response to the head of the Health Department of SYRIZA An. Xanthos. who blamed him for drug shortages.

“Syriza’s insistence on petty gains even from a problem that plagues the biggest countries with the most expensive drugs like the USA, Germany, England and all the EU countries shows that it cannot understand the global dimension of the issue and considers the problem national and exclusively a problem of parallel exports at the moment when the shortage in the current phase primarily concerns medicines and active substances that are not exported, such as paracetamol”, continues Th. Pleuris.

“However, the audacity of Mr. Xanthos to speak about interests is unparalleled at a time when SYRIZA, both as a government, legislated in favor of multinational interests and as an opposition, voted against every measure of pressure on expensive drugs. Specifically, after forgetting to issue a price list in 2015, depriving the public of around 100 million that the state earns from price reductions, it then fully satisfied the demand of the pharmaceutical industry that the prices of medicines be determined not by the average of its countries EU, but of the eurozone and there should be a 7% price drop. In simple words, SYRIZA gave better prices to medicines and especially to expensive medicines”, emphasizes the Minister of Health, pointing out that “as an opposition, SYRIZA did not support the provisions for negotiations on medicines from which our country for 2022 signed agreements of 920 million. euros earning discounts of 450 million euros.

He did not support having a ceiling on the claw back for cheap drugs which are basically drugs of domestic production and today are in short supply due to the expensive raw materials and he did not support having a different budget for expensive drugs and all other drugs, a measure which he again supports cheap drugs that don’t bear the burden of very expensive treatments.”

Regarding parallel exports in the 4.5 years that he was in power, he took absolutely no measures and now criticizes the measures that lead to the lockout of those who illegally, says Th. Pleuris, underlining that “in contrast to the pharmaceutical policy of SYRIZA, which was a service policy interests, with a sign of public health, the government of ND ensures all treatments at the best prices, supports domestic production and innovation, takes measures to cover shortages and operates with a citizen-centered approach, ensuring the adequacy of medicines with daily measures and taking initiatives for the joint EU-level response to the global problem of drug shortages’.

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