• Boticaria García Why are so many medicines missing in pharmacies?

The OCU and Health by Right have denounced this Thursday that the Ministry of Health continues to hide behind "the confidentiality that protects the pharmaceutical industry" to not inform about the price of several high-cost medicines, despite the fact that the Transparency Council urged the Executive to share the information.

In a press release, these two organizations responsible for the campaign "It is not healthy" explain that Health has filed an administrative appeal against that resolution of the Transparency Council that urged them to give the information within ten days.

"It is not healthy" had presented a dozen requests to know the price of medicines, but Health alleges that they are confidential because only then can Spain get them at a more advantageous price.

When asked about it, from the Ministry of Health explain to EFE that the system works as in many other countries with a system of notified prices where two prices coexist: the notified, which would serve for international referencing and that would be applied in the purchase of medicines without public prescription, and the billing (lower than the notified) with more favorable conditions agreed for the drug that are applicable to public funding.

Ministry sources point out that the breach of confidentiality would imply a loss of negotiating and competitive capacity in prices that would entail damage to the public interest, as happens -affects Health- in the case of these resolutions.

The current legislation establishes the confidentiality of all information and the Ministry believes that the breach of this guarantee due to the transparency of administrative action "would cause irreparable damage to our health system."

But "No es Sano" denounces in its press release that keeping this information secret allows the pharmaceutical industry to negotiate with each State a different price, depending on what each country is willing to pay.

These organizations argue, however, that when dealing with drugs paid for by citizens, the public interest must always prevail over commercial interests.

"There will be no fair and affordable prices as long as there are no fair negotiations and fair negotiations are not possible as long as there is no transparency," these entities allege.

For this reason, "No es Sano" has appeared in this case through two of its promoting organizations, the Health by Law Foundation and the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU).

"We cannot continue to allow the pharmaceutical industry to be the one who marks the lines of negotiation of the purchase of new drugs, imposing secrecy," defends Vanessa López, director of Salud por Derecho.

The requests for information that will end up in court concerned two drugs: lanadelumab (Takhzyro), a drug for a rare inherited disease, and remdesivir (Veklury), against Covid-19.

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