Polish pharmacies may soon run out of 257 drugs, including some anticoagulants and anti-inflammatory drugs.
July 12 this year The Ministry of Health has published a list of “medicinal products, medicinal products, foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses and medical devices at risk of unavailability on the territory of the Republic of Poland”. The ministerial list includes, among others anticoagulants Clexane and Fragmin, anti-inflammatory Fostex, Vesicare used in urinary incontinence, Metex prescribed, among others for treatment-resistant psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis in adults. You can find a complete list of drugs here
Experts warn that the lack of availability of many drugs poses a threat to the health and life of patients. Why did this happen at all? One of the main reasons is the export of medicines abroad. In Poland, the prices of reimbursed drugs are much lower than in other European Union countries (including Austria and Germany). As tvn24 calculates, the profit can be up to several hundred zlotys on the packaging. The value of drugs taken abroad in 2012 alone is estimated at up to PLN 2 billion.
July 12 this year regulations have entered into force that are to make it difficult to export medicines from Poland. According to them, the minister of health is obliged to publish a list of “medicinal products, medicinal products, foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses and medical devices at risk of unavailability on the territory of the Republic of Poland” at least once every two months. Such a list is to help GIF (the Main Pharmaceutical Inspectorate) to possibly issue a ban on the export of a given product.
Źródła:
tvn24.pl;
sejm.gov.pl