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According to the SNB, when the rulers planned to decide on the establishment of state pharmacies on Tuesday, the managers of some hospitals say they have not yet planned the reforms, because they would be costly, and representatives of private pharmacies and the Seimas warn that they warn that European Commission .
On Tuesday morning, liberal Eugenijus Gentvilas said the goal was to create a new state network, which violates the principles of competition.
“They already have hospital facilities out of the pockets of taxpayers. Only from this point of view, competition in the fight against private pharmaceutical networks or individual private pharmacies distorts competition, ”said E. Gentvilas.
He also stated that he did not believe there was a need to expand Lithuania’s pharmacy network.
“We know that the network of pharmacies in Lithuania is almost double the number in the countries of the Organization for European Cooperation and Development and the European Union. It makes no sense to increase competition by violating that competition, ”said E. Gentvilas.
The politician said he had no doubt that after such a decision, pharmacies near hospitals would go bankrupt and would be bought by a newly created state network.
Conservative Mykolas Majauskas said there are much simpler and more effective ways to achieve the goal of cheaper drugs.
“Let’s say it compensates for more drugs. I would support such a goal and such measures. Now, when the state pharmacies are being created, the only thing left is the state stores and the state holidays, and we will have turned the circle and returned to where. We just fled with blood, ”said M. Majauskas.
The rulers promise to unite
Governors who promise to join together to pass amendments to the Pharmacy Law believe such pharmacies will improve the availability of drugs, increase competition and lower the price of drugs. At that time, the opposition, on the contrary, assures that the competition will decrease, the funds of the health system will be wasted, wrote BNS.
The green peasant leader explained that the objective is to increase competition.
“First of all, we are talking about medical institutions, which usually have these pharmacies, but nowadays they do not trade freely in the market. They only serve inpatient hospitals. I think this change would only increase competition. If we talk about price differences in Poland or elsewhere, it is mainly related to competition, which is higher, ”said R. Karbauskis.
The topic was included in the agenda of the plenary session of the Seimas.
If the amendments are adopted, it will be possible to establish state pharmacies not only in hospitals but also in polyclinics or dispensaries from January next year. They would also be traded online.
The opposition has previously promised that if the Seimas allows the establishment of such pharmacies, it asks the President to veto them, and if he does not, it will request an interpretation from the Constitutional Court.
Kristina Nemaniūtė-Gagė, president of the Lithuanian Pharmacy Association, explained to BNS that the legalization of state pharmacies will not promote equal competition between them and private pharmacies. She doubts that such a network is managed effectively.
“It just came to our knowledge then. (…) The state completely interferes in business,” said K. Nemaniūtė-Gagė.
She predicts that the emergence of state pharmacies would lead to the bankruptcy of small pharmacies or the withdrawal of medical facilities. She also asked how long those pharmacies would be kept and how much it would cost the state.
“If it is about PSDF (Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund – BNS) funds, the question arises whether we should not use them to increase the salaries of doctors and nurses, a broader list of reimbursable drugs,” he said.
If the Seimas approves the amendments, K. Nemaniūt Ga-Gagė said he would ask the president to veto them and initiate an appeal to the Constitutional Court and the European Commission.
Aušra Budrikienė, general director of the UAB Nemuno vaistinė, which runs the Camelia pharmacy chain, said that it is difficult to unequivocally evaluate these plans without knowing exactly how to implement the idea of establishing state pharmacies.
“I really doubt that the state pharmacy network will help reduce the price of drugs. First of all, drug prices are still regulated: the state sets limits on both wholesale and retail margins, and the strong Competition in the market means that pharmacies in many cases charge lower margins. It is true that most of the final price of drugs is the manufacturer’s price, which so far is the only component of the price of drugs that is not regulated For the state.
Creating a strong network of public pharmacies would require significant investments that are unlikely to have the expected effect. If the public pharmacy network operated in the same way as other market participants for financial gain, then the impact on drug prices would be minimal or non-existent, as the market remains very competitive. From our point of view, if the public pharmacy network were subject to the same requirements as privately owned pharmacies, we would not see any problem with the appearance of a new competitor, ”said the head of Camelia.
Mindaugas Čipinys, deputy director of the Republican Infrastructure Hospital in Panevėžys, told BNS that the hospital management did not estimate how much it would cost to adapt the hospital pharmacy to “external customers”.
Sergei Naumkin, deputy director of Medical Affairs at Utena Hospital, told BNS that it would be a challenge to redesign the hospital’s internal pharmacy, which now provides drugs only for the needs of this medical institution.
“It would be a very difficult task to reorganize the pharmacy and secure the work, because we have a limited staff and they have enough work with the medicines that are needed in the departments. The facilities are too small, we just do it ourselves. The reorganization would require an additional work organization, investments, ”S. Naumkin told BNS.
According to Algimantas Vakarinas, deputy director of Infrastructure and Farm at Vilnius City Clinical Hospital, the reorganization will not be discussed until the lease with the private pharmacy expires.
“And the second thing is that we don’t have more stores, I can’t imagine how to reorganize it technically: we need to build a cash register, gather staff, because even now our pharmacy doesn’t open overnight, so that the infrastructure is convenient for people between. The additional expansion of functions is related to finances ”, he considered.
In addition, the Seimas will have to vote on the proposal of the liberal Jonas Liesis to allow the establishment of state pharmacies not from January next year, but from 2023. According to the parliamentarian, by then the reform would be better prepared, because now the Health resources are directed to the management of the pandemic.
There are about 230 large pharmacy chains operating in Lithuanian medical institutions.
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