ABOUT TIME - Initiative for pharmaceuticals bank for the poor and uninsured

Medication (Photo credit: hitthatswitch)

When the government begins handing out gifts to the poor, then one really has to wonder if elections are around the corner. According to a dispatch fromthe state news agency the health ministry on Tuesday announced an initiative arising through the collaboration of the Athens Medical Association, the Association of Pharmaceutical Enterprises in Greece, the Archepiscopate of Athens and the ministry to create a "pharmaceuticals bank" for the poor and those lacking health insurance.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said the ministry had received 34,000 applications for the ministry's health aid programme, of which 10,500 have been approved until now. Among others, the programme aims to collect and distribute free medication that is a few months before its expiry date. The head of the pharmaceutical enterprises association estimated that roughly 900,000 such units of medication will be collected each year, to be distributed after inspection by the National Organisation for Medicines (EOF).

The minister was closely questioned about generic drugs in view of an upcoming bill on pharmaceuticals and revealed that there will be a further price reductions in order to generate incentives for the use of generic medication, until it accounts for 60 pct of medicines used.

He stressed that generic drugs were checked by EOF before release and only 4 percent were deemed unsafe, the same percentage as for brand name drugs. He also revealed that the troika had criticised the low (25 percent) contribution paid by patients toward the cost of drugs.