Few Generic Drugs Available Through Romanian Healthcare Programs - Official

05.26.2011 By Bostan Radu

Consumption of generic drugs has risen in Romania, improving access to this kind of product, but too few drugs with expired patents are available through the national healthcare programs, said Lucian Duta, head of the National Health Insurance House (CNAS).

Duta said medicine reference prices do not apply to national healthcare programs, on which CNAS spends 40% of its drug budget.

A report by the European Parliament (EP), cited by local association of international drug makers ARPIM, found generic drugs have a better market penetration in Romania than in other European Union states.

Generics accounted for 64% of the volume and 24.2% of the value of all prescription drugs sold in 2010, while original drugs accounted for 36% of the volume and 74% of the value, which places Romania above the EU average of 22.4% in value for the consumption of generics.

The EP report shows that Romania, unlike other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, promotes identical generic drugs, sold under commercial brands, which are more expensive than generics sold under the name of the molecule they contain.

Sales of expensive generics increased in the second half of 2010, while cheap generics lost market share both in value (from 4.6% to 4.2%) and in volume (from 19.9% in 2009 to 17.2% in 2010). The average quarterly value of expensive generics increased from about EUR84 million in 2009, to EUR99 million in 2010 - an increase of about 17%.