With the Medicines Law, companies are forced to sell their products to hospitals at regional prices

The draft law that will enable the setting of ceiling prices for medicines has been passed by the Government. This legal initiative will also apply to wholesale operators, but also to private pharmacies. This law will also determine the prices of medicines in public tenders. Almost identical to this law, an Administrative Instruction was issued in 2019, but it was never implemented

For the second time since 2019, efforts will be made to stabilize the pharmaceutical market.

While in 2019 there was an Administrative Instruction on the establishment of ceiling prices for drugs, but which has never been implemented, on Wednesday the draft law on this issue was passed by the Government of Kosovo.

If this law is passed in the Parliament, then the prices of drugs will be unified for both the private and public sectors.

The draft law is very similar to the Administrative Instruction, which has never been implemented.

There is a separate procedure for determining the price of wholesale and retail products. The basis of the pricing methodology will be the reference prices of the same drugs in the countries of the region. Most of these countries have published reference prices, but if they do not use any bar, then the prices in other European countries will be taken as a reference.

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"The price of the medicinal product is determined by calculating the average wholesale price of the two lowest prices of that product from the reference countries", it is stated in article 9, paragraph 5 of the draft law.

A profit margin will be added to this price, which cannot be more than 7 percent.

The bill envisages the creation of a commission, which will analyze the prices of drugs declared by economic operators and then compare them with the prices of the same drugs in other states.

A similar method will be used for the prices of drugs sold in pharmacies, but for these products there will be a graduated profit margin.

"The commission for prices of medicinal products will add to the wholesale price a retail profit margin for licensed retail distributors, as follows: Wholesale price of the product from € 0 - € 9.99 - margin of 20%; Wholesale price of the product € 10.0 - € 49.99 - margin of 15%; Wholesale price of the product € 50.0 - € 99.99 - margin of 12%; The wholesale price of the product over € 100.0 - margin of 10%", it is stated in article 11, paragraph 4 of the draft law.

If this law passes, the prices will be set on the banner of the bar.

And private companies that want to participate in public tenders cannot offer products at higher prices than they have declared. The declaration will be annual.

The Minister of Health, Arben Vitia, spoke about the importance of this draft law during and after the Government meeting.

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"We want to break away from this bad practice and give institutions and citizens the most adequate instrument to protect themselves from abuses and the high costs of spending on vital products, which are medicines in this case. By determining the prices of medicinal products for licensed wholesale and retail pharmaceutical distributors in our country, it will be possible for health institutions to provide the necessary and efficient medicines to citizens and institutions at an affordable cost. The law will make it possible to avoid different prices for identical products and will prevent drug price abuses like until now", said Vitia.

All European countries have long regulated the issue of drug prices. The pharmaceutical chaos with prices is unaddressed only in Kosovo and Belarus.