"Hemofarm": Government neglects interests of pharmaceutical industry

Pharmaceutical company "Hemofarm" from Vršac announced on Friday (September 4, 2009) that the Government of Serbia neglected the interests of Serbian pharmaceutical industry and sent bad message to investors every time it passed the regulations on correction of the drugs prices.

The Government of Serbia, which passed the new regulation on criteria for forming the prices of drugs on September 3rd, did not use that opportunity "to correct a long-lasting negligence of certain group of drugs whose prices have not reached the appropriate level of comparable prices even after ten or more passed regulations on correction of the drugs' prices".

As people in "Hemofarm" explained, certain group of drugs that are produced in Serbia and are much in use are "neglected" for a long time when the prices of drugs are brought in accord with the foreign currency exchange rate and the prices in the region, so that the prices of these drugs are much lower than so-called "foreign-domiciled price", that is, the average price of that drug in Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.

Passing of the Regulation was paralleled by the rejection of the Drugs Manufacturers Group's request for correction of the prices of drugs that amount to less than 40% of the foreign-domiciled average price.

It is pointed out that the Group asked for the prices of drugs that amounted to less than 30% of the foreign-domiciled average price to be increased by 15%, while the drugs whose prices are now between 30 and 40% of the foreign-domiciled average prices should have been increased by 10%.

- These are the "basic" drugs that are much in use and are not imported - people from "Hemofarm" pointed out and added that, because of their low prices, the financial share of those drugs in the market was very small in spite of their big consumption, while the production was at the edge of sustainability.

As people in "Hemofarm" explain, that problem is bothering not only their company, but also all other companies that operate in Serbia.

The Administration of "Stada group" is shocked at such procedure, so that the option of participation in the tender for takeover of "Galenika" will be taken in serious consideration at the meeting of the Supervisory Board of "Hemofarm" next week.

- Exceptionally low prices of large group of domestic drugs will, most probably, lead to discontinuation of their production and emergency import of these drugs at significantly higher prices. That is a bad message for potential investors - "Hemofarm" announced.