The total amount of reimbursements (refunds, rebates) that pharmaceutical companies pay to the state has increased over the past three years, while public funding for hospital expenses remains at the same level. This is stated, among other things, in a letter sent by the SFEE (Association of Pharmaceutical Enterprises of Greece) to government officials of the Ministry of Finance and Health, which refers to the “dramatic underfunding of hospital medicine” and requests an immediate meeting with them. .

The Association of Pharmaceutical Companies of Greece speaks of “dramatic underfunding of hospital medicine”.

In particular, taking into account return payment notes for the second half of 2021, SFEE reports that the total income of companies (clawback, rebate) increased in 2019-2022 by 61.4%, from 446 million euros in 2019 to 720 million euros. euro this year due to underfunding of hospital costs. Rebate is the amount of money pharmaceutical companies pay to the government that arises each year as a result of budget overruns over EOPYY spending and statutory hospital spending. Refunds accounted for 46.5% of spending in 2019, 55.2% in 2021 and estimated to reach 61% of spending in 2022, according to SFEE. At the same time, public funding remains stable at 528 million euros per year, while with the abolition of closed budgets applicable to certain categories of medicines, public funding, according to SFEE, decreased by 10.1% between 2019 and 2022 year.

Total spending on pharmaceuticals (public funding, company reimbursement) increased by 23.1% in the respective years and is estimated to reach €1.1bn in 2022, from €1bn in 2021 to €969m in 2020 and 959 million euros in 2020 2019. Finally, in its letter, the association also talks about delays of 10-12 months in payments by hospitals to pharmaceutical companies for the supply of medicines.