“To see Greece as an investment destination and not only as a pharmaceutical market”, the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis invited the representatives of the international pharmaceutical industry, speaking at Forum of Delphi.

As the Minister of Health pointed out, “the aim of the ministry is to encourage the realization of clinical studies and there is an improvement in this”.

“However, this is not enough as we also want investments for the production of medicines in Greece”, he noted. Speaking about clawback and rebate, the Minister of Health said that in 2024 they will be reduced by 300 million euros, while he stated that his goal is to reach this reduction of 400 million. “This is how we will send the message to the industry that we understand them, but all this will be done with data and complete transparency,” he said characteristically.

Speaking about our country, he said that as foreseen by the new European regulation on pharmaceutical policy, the burden now falls on innovation. Although as he pointed out “we are 2% of the European population in Greece, we produce 10% of the medicines currently exported by the European Union”, pointing out that our country offers itself for investments in the health sector.

Ad. Georgiadis, referred to the example of a well-known multinational pharmaceutical company, which for several years proceeded to build pharmaceutical factories in Greece and today exports have skyrocketed. Once again the Minister of Health emphasized that it remains of crucial importance that “medicines that are the product of research and very important for patients reach patients”, but he explained that the misuse of medicines and their overuse is another phenomenon that must be to be confronted.

Thibault Massart, Vice President, Europe South, of the pharmaceutical company AbbVie admitted that in Greece there is a high level of scientific staff and emphasized that it is very important for him and his company that the country offers patients all the medicines they need. However, he spoke about the pricing of medicines in Greece, stressing how “it has one of the lowest drug prices in Europe and this does not make Greece attractive for investment at the international level”. We often see new measures and changes in the pharmaceutical policy, “but what we need is a stable pharmaceutical policy to make Greece a country that will approach international investments in the pharmaceutical industry”,he pointed out.

For her part, Florence Papillon, Head of Corporate, Public Affairs Europe at the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, explained that industry believes in an honest dialogue between government and the private sector and he said that “investments in the field of medicine will strengthen the local economy for this reason and incentives should be given so that we invest in Greece”. Incentives for young scientists to work in research, as research can and should become competitive in the field of medicine, he continued and added: “Greece must capitalize on the high level of scientists it has and proceed to increase the clinical studies carried out in the country.” The goal of all of us should be to sit down together at a table and ultimately discuss what will be beneficial for patients, he concluded.

The need to communicate to the public the value of innovative medicines so that everyone understands what innovation in medicine means and also the wide spectrum it covers from rare diseases to often difficult to treat diseases, emphasized the B. Vakuftsipresident of the Hellenic Patient Association at her appointment. “Innovative treatments should be made clear that they should be a priority for the health systems and that all patients will have access to them,” he stressed, adding that the cooperation of all involved bodies can only be for the benefit of patients. “From time to time we have made completely substantiated proposals on how the situation in Greece can be improved in terms of medicine”, concluded.

From her side, Paulina Karasiotou, general secretary of Fiscal Policy, emphasized that as the years go by “We have more and more expensive drugs for fewer and fewer patients, and this new situation will have to be addressed by collaboration and dialogue between patients, the government and the pharmaceutical industry.” As he said, the dialogue process concerning the co-competent ministries has started and is ongoing and has as its main topic the study of the finances surrounding the pharmaceutical policy.

Finally, the advisor to the prime minister Vassilis Kontozamanis pointed out that we have learned a lot from the pandemic in relation to medicine in Europe stressing that “Europe must become more competitive in the field of medicine and manage to be strategically autonomous in this field”. As he pointed out, predictability in the drug market is a very important element to convince large pharmaceutical companies to invest in our country. “The message is” as he said – and it emerged from the meeting that took place at the Maximos Palace with the representatives of the pharmaceutical companies – “that Greece can accept investments from the international pharmaceutical industry”, while he predicted that soon “we will have good news” for these investments.