Romania is the only country in the EU that allows the sale of medicines to people without experience in the field of animal health. The College of Veterinary Doctors is fighting the authorities to change the provisions introduced by the PSD in 2017, which threaten the health of Romanians (we explain in detail below).

What at first glance seems like a good idea (anyone can create a veterinary pharmacy and you don’t even need to have a shareholding specialist), in practice it creates problems for the population, so the decisions came from the European Court and the European Commission. The problem is serious.

Also, despite what he has seen the European authorities say, the Romanian Competition Council still says that what is happening is good (in the 2021 report), and even Bohdan Cirica at a conference in these days. In this report, the College of Veterinarians put forward a view that shows where the antitrust body is wrong.

Viorel Androni, president of the College of Veterinary Medicine, says that anyone can create and sell to anyone, anyone can buy, and the effect is this:

“Individuals who own animals in Romania go to veterinary pharmacies, buy antibiotics and use them on their own animals, whose food is consumed without any control. Buy products containing 100 ml for a pig that needs 10 ml during treatment, leaving 90 ml at the disposal of the owner of the animal, who can do whatever he likes with it without any control, putting people’s health at risk.

As proof, let’s look at what is happening with antibiotic resistance in Romania, the country with the biggest problem in the EU.”

How it all began

“Regarding the veterinary profession, in 2012 the European Parliament asked the European Commission to start the procedure for assessing the capital of all liberal professions in Europe. In 2013, a document was submitted to the Commission for consideration, which presented the situations of 5 professions at the European level, including an architect, an accountant, a veterinarian, and two others. At that time, Romania had Law 160/1998, which we had until 2017,” said Androni, president of the College of Veterinary Doctors, during an event organized by the UPLR.

Well, he says: based on the assessment made by the European Commission, it is written in black and white that in Romania the veterinary profession functioned correctly, legally, in accordance with European legislation.

This is in conditions when we had veterinary pharmacies that were 100% owned by veterinarians, “and veterinary offices were required to participate in the capital of the respective companies. It happened in 2012.”

According to him, in 2014 there was a problem with the authorization of some veterinary pharmacies belonging to a pharmaceutical company.

• “The company did not have veterinarians as shareholders. That’s why they couldn’t allow veterinary pharmacies.”

Strange decision by ANSVSA after point of view and fall of justice

Then he initiated an appeal to the Competition Council. Following the notification, the Board issued a view which was sent to ANSVSA (National Veterinary and Food Safety Authority), the College of Veterinarians and those who made the notification.

“The direction ended not with a solution, but with a point of view. After that, although Act 160 clearly states that veterinary pharmacies cannot be authorized unless they are 100% owned by veterinarians, ANSVSA amended the order and allowed these veterinary pharmacies to be authorized under conditions that the law states quite differently.” says Androni.

The Board of Veterinarians challenged this order in court and overturned it.

“We fought from 2015 to 2021, when it was completed in the High Court of Cassation and justice, which gave us the right, but everything changed in this way,” he added.

Therefore, in 2015, the results of this process were referred to the Constitutional Court, which ruled in favor of the veterinarians.

The Constitutional Court very clearly stated that “the exclusive use of veterinary medicinal products by veterinarians and their sale are in accordance with the Constitution. 100% ownership of veterinary pharmacies by veterinarians is in accordance with the Constitution of Romania.”

PSD went further in 2017

During the trial, the vets took the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

It was announced in 2018, but the fight continued in 2017 due to an emergency decree, what happened when the ANSVSA changed the decree, this time through the modification of Law 160 (due to a decree issued by the government of Mihai Tudose, and in the Ministry of Agriculture there was Petre Daea).

“It’s not that we have 100% equity in the company, but practically we were finally excluded from the shares of veterinary pharmacies, so that from October 2017 any person in Romania can open a veterinary pharmacy. Even more seriously, the presence of veterinarians from veterinary pharmacies is excluded,” he said.

• Anyone can create, anyone can sell to anyone, anyone can buy, and the effect is this: people who own animals in Romania go to veterinary pharmacies, buy antibiotics and use them on their animals, from which they consume food, without any control. .

• Buy products containing 100 ml for a pig that needs 10 ml during treatment, leaving 90 ml at the disposal of the owner of the animal, who can do whatever he likes with it without any control, putting people’s health at risk.

• As proof, let’s look at what is happening with antibiotic resistance in Romania, the country with the biggest problem in the EU.

The European Court ruled in favor of veterinarians

“When the legislative process of Decree 70 came to Parliament, we tried to say what we had to say,” said a representative of the College of Veterinary Surgeons, noting that in the meantime the European Court of Justice issued a judgment on March 1, 2018, which said that:

• The use and marketing of veterinary medicines should only be carried out by veterinarians, as this is the only profession that has the abilities and skills required by European law, and that veterinary pharmacies can be owned by veterinarians, but not 100%, but a majority. So the percentage of 51% corresponds to European legislation.

All countries with problems obeyed, because it is about people’s health, not about Romania

“A good thing happened, but not for Romania, but for those in Europe. The commission, after the decision in the case of veterinarians in Romania, acted against 5 states that were in the same situation as us, and encouraged them to amend the legislation,” he said.

All of these countries (Hungary, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and France) have changed their legislation on vets from 100% to 51% share capital.

• In addition, the Austrian government did not want to change the law and went to the European Court of Justice, arguing that vets should have 100%.

“In 2020, the parliament initiated a project with the help of which they wanted to restore in Law 160 what happened in the EU Court, in the Constitutional Court, in the Romanian courts. The project was adopted by the overwhelming majority of the parliament,” he said.

Unfortunately, according to Androni, it was declared unconstitutional in the Constitutional Court by the same company that instigated the phenomenon in 2014, because they were not transitional measures.

Therefore, the Constitutional Court did not say that it was unconstitutional in essence, analyzing these issues, and that there were no transitional measures.

The board of doctors hopes that this will be resolved.

The Competition Council has a strange position, although even the European Commissioner shows that this is not normal

“It is sad that in 2021, despite these judicial decisions, the Competition Council issued a study in which it recommended that the legislation be changed in the sense that veterinarians should completely disappear all forms of capital owned by veterinary pharmacies and veterinary practices, contrary to the decision of the Constitutional court and the European Court,” Androni said.

He declares that veterinarians will never agree to what the Competition Council wants, “we will continue the fight in court.”

“We have a process for that. After the Competition Council released this study, we asked the European Commission for a view,” said a spokesperson for the College of Veterinary Surgeons.

According to him, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton informed the European Parliament that the ownership of capital by veterinarians is in accordance with European legislation.

It is surprising that after hearing these things, Bohdan Chiritsoyu, the president of the Competition Council, said during the conference that: “We have hospitals, clinics that have visitors who are not doctors, but (they do not need) equipment that very expensive. It is very good that we leave the opportunity to some investors who have money and will hire doctors, people who do their job properly.”

“I think the model works well for human pharmacies,” Chiritsou said, and the audience could hear laughter from the experts as they argued otherwise, that quality has declined.

Chiritsou said, after he also laughed that it was controversial: “We have networks that are being standardized. And here I need a lot of money to have a supply of medicine. I think it’s good that we allow some non-pharmaceutical investors to carry out such activities.”

Photo source: Dreamstime.com

Read on the topic and:

How pharmacists are obliged to sell us certain products / There will be big problems in the tax field if similar changes are made

Valentina Sorochanu: It’s a shame that a hired pharmacist goes home at the end of the month with a salary of 3,000 lei