Lithuanian president pushes health minister to decrease pharmaceutical prices

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Tuesday urged the state's health care officials to find ways to decrease prices of pharmaceuticals as the costs were "unjustifiably high."

Grybauskaite noted that the medicine price issue was "a matter of trust" which concerned health minister Aurelijus Veryga, local media reported.

On Tuesday, Grybauskaite arranged a meeting with the minister and representatives of the country's Competition Council and National Audit Office.

The president said Veryga had to accomplish what his predecessors had failed to -- improve the competitive environment and prevent opaque deals when medicines were purchased, thus creating conditions for lower priced medicines.

According to the presidency, the Lithuanian health ministry had so far been ignoring the problem. However, there was the possibility to "achieve a breakthrough."

After the meeting, the president's spokeswoman emphasized that the Competition Council and the National Audit Office had both indicated there had been corruption and illegal lobbying in the market of reimbursable pharmaceuticals, news agency Elta reported.

According to the president's representative, people and the state were overpaying for drugs because of opaque pricing and existing reimbursement regulations.

People are prevented from innovative and vital medicines due to institutional inaction, the presidency said in a statement.

In response, Veryga said: "We will review the rules of reimbursing and will change them if needed" according to local website vz.lt.

Earlier, the Competition Council had identified a number of major problems in the country, including inefficient competition, legal hurdles, and current rules on calculating reimbursable drug prices. Endit