Pharmacies lack anticoagulants, anti-asthma, cardiological drugs used in the treatment of diabetes and cancer. According to the NRA, one of the reasons for this situation is their sale abroad. Work on the bill limiting this is in progress.
Dr. Marek Jędrzejczak, the vice-president of the Polish Chamber of Commerce, told PAP that pharmacists have reported shortages of drugs on the website of the Supreme Chamber of Pharmacists since 2013. From January 1 to December 10, 2014, they did it over 1480 times, with one notification most often involving several drugs. About 200 medicinal products in various doses and forms are reported.
This, of course, is only the tip of the iceberg. According to the statements of national consultants from various fields of medicine, the lack of availability of drugs significantly threatens the health and life of Polish patients. Out of 10 experts interviewed, as many as 8 confirmed that difficulties in obtaining drugs necessary for proper pharmacological treatment pose a direct threat to the health and life of patients – he emphasized.
One of the reasons for this situation is the expanding sphere of parallel exports of reimbursed drugs, the prices of which in Poland are much lower than in other European Union countries. Annually, drugs worth about PLN 2 billion are exported to other countries of the community.
In this situation, a Polish patient is forced to wander through pharmacies in search of a drug prescribed by a doctor. Often the patient does not buy the drug. This pathology increases the cost of treatment, as the health condition of many chronically ill patients is deteriorating – judged Jędrzejczak.
In his opinion, the so-called direct distribution system, imposed by some drug manufacturers. As a result, pharmacies only receive three or four packages of important life-saving drugs per week.
Currently, only the three largest wholesalers indicated by innovative drug manufacturers, as well as some consignment warehouses, have exclusive access to over a hundred important health and life-saving drugs, he emphasized.
In his opinion, this problem should be solved as soon as possible by guaranteeing pharmacies and patients constant access to health and life-saving drugs.
The pharmacy council already alerted five years ago that the state’s tolerance of the so-called direct distribution system (bypassing the classic lawful supply chain: manufacturer – wholesaler – pharmacy – patient) may result in drug manufacturers unilaterally setting limits on drug deliveries to pharmacies – said Jędrzejczak.
He added that during the work on the amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law, which was underway in the Sejm, the Supreme Pharmaceutical Chamber proposed an amendment aimed at providing all pharmaceutical wholesalers with constant supplies of drugs covered by the authorization granted by the entrepreneur, in the amount necessary to meet the current needs of patients.
The proposed provision stipulates that the refusal to sell the reimbursed medicinal product to an authorized marketing entity (wholesaler or pharmacy) is to be made in writing or electronically, with justification and notification to the Main Pharmaceutical Inspector – informed the deputy head of the Polish Bar Council.
This amendment was already reported by NIA on the occasion of an earlier amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law, which implemented the provisions of the EU directive on the prevention of drug counterfeiting into Polish law. During work on this law, in November last year, the parliamentary health committee decided to cancel it, although it had been approved by the subcommittee earlier.
MP Janina Okrągły (PO), who then submitted a motion to remove the amendment, said that the issue of parallel exports and access to medicines required a separate amendment. She argued that the amendment caused a lot of controversy and suggested that it would turn against patients and lead to a shortage of drugs.
Also, Deputy Minister of Health Igor Radziewicz-Winnicki decided then that the amendment as notified by the NIA could lead to a shortage of drugs, as it provided for the sale by producers to all wholesalers in any quantity.
The President of the Polish Bar Council informed at the end of January that the MPs from the Civic Platform who participated in the work of the health committee assured representatives of the NIA that such a regulation would, however, be included in the parliamentary draft amendment to the Pharmaceutical Law. However, this did not happen – there is no such provision in the draft submitted by the Civic Platform deputies and supported by the Ministry of Health, which appeared in the Sejm in December last year, and which aims to limit the export of medicines abroad as part of parallel exports.
The draft introduces a procedure of controlled export of drugs by a wholesaler. For this purpose, an obligation to notify the pharmaceutical inspection of an intention to export a drug abroad is to be introduced. In the event of a risk of unavailability of a medicinal product, the Main Pharmaceutical Inspector would be obliged to raise an objection within 7 working days from the date of receipt of the notification. The wholesaler could only proceed with the export in the absence of an objection from the GIF.
The export of drugs without prior notification or against the objection of the pharmaceutical inspection will be punished. The penalty will be up to 5 percent. the value of the annual net turnover.
Round, which is currently chairing the work of the subcommittee, told PAP that it would meet again on Tuesday. It is to be the penultimate meeting, and later the health committee will deal with the project again. (PAP)