AV ONET: Non-racial growth in Kosovo drug price is prevented

AV ONET says that this process comes as a requirement of the Law on Prices of Medical Products, which has entered into force on August 18, 2023, where, specifically, in its provisions, the article 19 is envisioned for the first four months after its introduction to power to begin 6 months later.

However, according to this NGO network, the Ministry of Health has been delayed in implementing this legal requirement, where in January alone this year it has formed the commission to set prices of medical products.

In this direction, AV ONET says that by the 15th,05,2024th decision. The Commission's proposal for the appointment of drug prices to the Kosovo Republic's pharmaceutical market has been approved, 05-3676.

“AVONET, after publishing the decision on the official pages of AKPPM and MF, has generally analysed the above-mentioned decision, with particular emphasis it has analysed the set of prices for the sale of medical products, where we have noted that the commission on price assignment has not fully implemented the methodology that is presented even in the provisions of the law. According to Article 8.2 of the Law on Prices of Medical Products, reference to the setting up of the prices of medical products should be the releases of the latest official reports of the time, at official portals on the networks of official institutions responsible for these reference states: Albania, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and the country of product origin. To this conclusion AV ONET has arrived after consulting pharmaceutical field experts and drug owners operating on the pharmaceutical market of the Republic of Kosovo”, AV says ONET on the media report.

After that analysis, AV ONET says it has taken concrete steps towards addressing this issue, where by the date of 21.05.24, using the provisions of the positive law on access to public documents, it has requested access to all of the commission's letters, with the aim of fully analyzing the work of this commission, with particular emphasis on analyzing the method of how they have reached the end of setting these prices.

Under our analysis, we see that the prices proposed by the commission and materialized through the MS minister's decision, in most cases, are significantly higher than the actual prices on the pharmaceutical market in our country. However, of the MS officials responsible, we have encountered neglect to address within the legal deadline of applying for access to public documents, with the only reason that we are in the process of collecting documentation, where we have not yet accepted the required <x1 files.

Okay, with the date 07.06.2024 through the decision no.prot. MS Minister 05-4289's decision was annulled by no.prot. 05-3676, where the commission was also commissioned to set prices for medical products, to draft a new list where it should take into account the guidelines provided by the MSH complaint commission”, it said. AVONET.

AV non-government organisations network ONET estimates that this is a proper step taken by the minister of Health, “for the fact that overall civic interest is being protected by this action, providing a real market price and overall pricing, which is also the purpose of the Law for setting prices of medical products”.