Failed Ministry: Citizens spent 800 thousand euros in one year to secure Remdesiviritri herself

Agon Hysa from KDI spoke of citizens' spending on the purchase of remdesiviriatri, even though the World Health Organization had recommended that it not be described as a drug for treating COVID-19.

  The National Audition Office has made such an estimate in its report. And it has found that for 135 patients who have been treated for a six-month period, in just one clinic department, these 135 patients if they bought 11 ampulas for a 180-euro price, on average at the time, have spent about 267 thousand euros. We as KDI have gone further, we've been trying to figure out how much it costs for a year. And we've got a minimum number of 10 patients a month, the potential minimum that bought the rmdesivire at a price of 50 euros, the expenses would be around 792 thousand euros”, he stated.

The use of remediari to treat patients with COVID-19 was recommended through COVID-19 Clinic Guide for Management and Treatment. Emergency procedure was initiated on October 16, 2020, where two companies complained and the tender was later turned into re-evaluation.

Meanwhile, Hysa indicated that in December 2020, He has cancelled the tender with the argument that the market remedist price has fallen and that the OBS has recommended that this drug has no effect on treatment of the virus.

  During all this time citizens have continued to buy this product themselves, there have been media reports almost every day. Where the price has been 200 to 300 euros for one unit. Interestingly, although MS has cancelled the tender, there has been no institutional communication telling hospitals not to continue to describe the remdesiviritri, since except that the tender has been cancelled even the WTO does not recommend that it be used. But the opposite has happened. The tender has been canceled, but hospitals have continued to describe patients to buy it on the market by”, He added Hysa.

However, this drug has also been able to be bought through an agreement with the European Union, which was signed in April 2020, where Kosovo has become part of the common procurement agreement.

In September, the price of remdesiviviria was markedly reduced and the price for the entity was paid 13 euros and 7920 units were purchased. The accepted product is a product of India's health biotech company, its product has no commercial name only as remdesivir. However, we have found that the reason the price could be low is because this company was not authorized by Gilad, who is the inventor of the remdesivir. Gilad has authorized several companies in India, Bangladesh, to produce this product and to the list of countries where this product can be exported, Kosovo is not on this list. It is not even a Balkan country to take a mirror. And it is likely that this product will violate the laws, since this company has not been authorized to produce this product”, He claims.

Even though it was purchased in 2021, the WTO has never changed its recommendation that the recovery has no effect on treating patients. But, the Health Ministry has not taken into account, as Agon Hysa of KDI says, and violated the reasoning to buy this drug.

He has recommended that citizens seek to restore drugs that they have purchased during this period.

MP Bekim Haxhiu has also invited citizens to ask for MSh to be restored the means they have spent.

 It's a pity how at this time it was paid up to 420 for the burial of a citizen who died from COVID-19. But his treatment therapy has not been paid. These are major abnormalities in the health system, especially in managing the pandemic situation. Not necessarily I was one of the critics during this period, because when I said that it was being stolen from the bodies sacks, it's coming out that not only in body bags. It's been stolen in drugs even on patients' corpses”, He has declared Haxhiu.

Former Health Minister Armend Zemaj has talked about the procedures Kosovo has followed for buying this drug.

 At that time it was said that all the stocks that were somewhere, more than 500,000 stocks were bought by the US. I'm talking about the producer who was Gilad and was licensed by EMA. Of course, other producers have started, with Kosovo having a reserve dose in the treatment of their drugs. We've done the job of drafting the Clinical Guide, there's been a group of professionals who effectively managed to convince me, but also in treating it so that we can sign such a guide that it would help legalally”, That's what Zemaj said.

And Health Commission member Shemsedin Dresaj said he is still being described for use.

 The “has never been purchased under 75 euros on the Kosovo market. I can tell you, I'm talking while I was and I'm done with the COVID wave. Who has offered that price 40 euros is really to worry about and there's room for someone to investigate in this direction. This has served to make it possible for patients to buy their own remdesivitri ... There have been different variations on the market, with various uncontrolled products. Even during the third and second wave, the remdesivirivir was provided by various producers at different prices, as long as we didn't have them in the” clinic, He said it.

Kosovo's Democratic Institute has recommended that the Commission for Monitoring the Law on Pandemia be provided with public accounts for the lack of long-term redesivire. And so that the Ministry of Health will create mechanisms in order to increase inter-institutional co-operation, efficiency management of emergency situations so that there will be no counterintelligence decisions..