Czech land of expensive drugs? Hundreds of prescription drugs have dropped in price

“The real prices of prescription drugs in pharmacies in the Czech Republic have been falling over the past five years. The growth of their prices was significantly lower than the growth of the consumer price index,” said Martin Fiala, director of the analysis company IQVIA, from which the association of pharmaceutical companies commissioned the analysis.

In recent years, drug prices have increased more slowly than housing or food prices. There was an increase of two percent for medicines, ten percent on average for housing.

The money that people left in pharmacies for co-payments has jumped slightly in recent years. However, this is an average, which distorts the situation, as the surcharges can vary significantly between individual preparations.

Five years ago, patients paid an extra 60 crowns on average for one package, last year it was 71 crowns, the analysis showed.

“More than half of the medicines to which the public health insurance contributes are completely free of co-payments,” emphasized Filip Vrubel, director of the Czech Association of Pharmaceutical Companies.

According to him, by supplying more packages of medicines to the Czech market, availability for patients also increases. Last year, pharmacies dispensed 154 million packages of prescription drugs to patients for a total of 44 billion crowns.

Undelivered overpayments for medicines are increasing. Seniors also lose thousands

Finance

Household spending on medicines has been increasing for a long time. For prescription drugs, the amount of co-payments is limited. Health insurance companies, for example, return quarterly to seniors over 70 the money they paid for medicines at the pharmacy, exceeding the sum of 500 crowns. However, many do not collect the overpayments and leave them to the insurance company. Last year, 45 million crowns were left with the General Health Insurance Company alone.

The Ministry of Health wants to adjust the mechanism so that nothing has to be returned to people. Already at the pharmacy when picking up the prescription, the patient would be notified that he had reached the limit and would not pay anything more for the medication.

One hundred best sellers

IQVIA analysts also concluded that manufacturer prices for the top 100 selling prescription drugs have fallen over the past five years. This includes, for example, preparations for blood clotting or cardiovascular disease, which are widely used.

According to company representatives, the reason is competition, pressure for a low price from the authorities and regulatory mechanisms of the state. The executive director of the Association of Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry David Kolář and Vrubel have long denied that medicines are significantly more expensive in the Czech Republic compared to neighboring EU states.

Pharmacists see it the same way. They have been drawing attention to low prices for a long time, especially in connection with frequent drug shortages and little competition. Representatives of the ministry have repeatedly denied that low prices are the main reason for the non-delivery of medicines to the Czech Republic.

The state only regulates the prices of prescription drugs, it does not intervene in the prices of over-the-counter drugs. It is with over-the-counter medicines that the price increase is more noticeable, the only limitation for the manufacturer is the competitiveness and people’s willingness to pay a higher price.

In the case of prescription drugs, the patient pays the difference between how much the drug is sold by the manufacturer, i.e. the pharmacy, and how much the health insurance company contributes to it.