Bulgarian Health Minister to Demand Drug Pricing Audit

Society » HEALTH | February 22, 2012, Wednesday // 08:43
Bulgaria: Bulgarian Health Minister to Demand Drug Pricing Audit Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov has vowed to demand a drug pricing audit to dispell allegations of irregularities on the local market. Photo by BGNES

Health Minister Stefan Konstantinov is expected to demand an audit of prices of pharmaceuticals in Bulgaria on Wednesday.

Konstantinov told journalists on Tuesday that the check had to be conducted by outside-Ministry experts so as to prevent doubts regarding its impartiality.

The announcement of the Health Minister came on the heels of the dismissal of Deputy Health Minister Gergana Pavlova on the grounds that she had failed to explain the pharmaceutical pricing policy.

"There has been much talk about medicine costs in Bulgaria and the decision of the Prime Minister for the dismissal was most probably triggered by the desire to ensure maximum transparency and to eliminate any doubts. I side with the opinion that the Health Ministry must be beyond criticism," Konstantinov said in his Tuesday interview.

He went on to stress that the best decision to curb monopoly suspicions on he pharmaceutical market was to remove a Deputy Minister.

The scandal erupted on Monday after a spate of media publications claiming that prices of medicines produced by local drug maker Sopharma were higher in Bulgaria than in Serbia and Turkey.

Sopharma is reportedly being invested by the European Commission for monopoly behavior.

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Tags: Stefan Konstantinov, health minister, pharmaceuticals, medicine, Sopharma, European Commission, monopoly, Gergana Pavlova

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