(Bloomberg) -- Greeks spend too much on foreign-made medicines, and the country's pharmaceutical industry is offering to help.
Drug makers based in the crisis-hit country, whose creditors have called for slashing spending on pharmaceuticals, can produce enough to cover at least 60 percent of local prescription-drug needs, compared with about 23 percent at the moment, said Theodoros Tryfon, president of the Pan-Hellenic Union of Pharmaceutical Industry.
“It's financial suicide to not use what we produce,” Tryfon said in an interview in Athens. “Greek pharmaceutical companies can offer quality drugs at low cost, however these drugs are not used at the level they could be used.”
While nothing prevents Greek doctors from prescribing drugs made locally -- the country's laws specify choice of medication by active substance rather than brand -- many are still pushing patients toward better-known, more expensive options, according to Tryfon.
Local Suppliers
Supply isn't a problem. Greece, a nation of 10 million people, has 27 drug production facilities and pharmaceuticals are the country's second-biggest export, with local drug makers exporting drugs worth of more than 800 million euros ($931 million) to Europe and the Middle East each year, according to Tryfon's industry group.
If the goal is to cut spending by making use of the country's less expensive medicines, there's plenty of room for improvement: Greece has the highest private expenditure on health-care among European Union countries, with citizens spending 7.4 percent of their average household budget in 2016, followed by Bulgaria with 6.7 percent, according to Hellenic Statistical Authority data.
Vianex SA, Famar SA, Pharmathen SA, Demo SA and Elpen Pharmaceutical Co Inc are among the country's biggest drug manufacturers.
Greece slashed pharmaceutical spending to 2 billion euros in 2014 from 5.6 billion euros in 2009 as part of a requirement by creditors to limit drug spending to 1 percent of gross domestic product by switching to more generic drugs. Drug makers are required to give mandatory discounts and pay back any spending on pharmaceuticals that exceed 2 billion euros. So-called rebates and clawbacks reached 950 million euros in 2016 and are expected to jump to 1.2 billion euros this year, taking a toll on local medicine manufacturers.
--With assistance from Marcus Bensasson and Sotiris Nikas
To contact the reporter on this story: Eleni Chrepa in Athens at echrepa@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jerrold Colten at jcolten@bloomberg.net, Marthe Fourcade
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.
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