Government Passes New Drug Policy, Medicines Should Be More Accessible

Bratislava, 6 May (TASR) - Medicines should be more accessible in Slovakia thanks to an amendment to the law on the scope and conditions of reimbursement for medicines, medical devices and dietary food, approved by the government at its session on Wednesday. The amendment should improve access to treatment covered from the public health insurance scheme, as well as transparency in the process of categorising medicines and reimbursement of medicines on an 'exception basis' and their subsequent coverage from the public health insurance scheme. The draft law also includes changes aimed at increasing the efficiency and speed of the categorisation process, as well as improving the availability of generic and biosimilar medicines. The proposed legislation responds to the need to remove ambiguities in its application, to align national legislation with EU law and international standards, and to ensure a higher level of legal certainty for regulated entities in the fields of human and veterinary pharmacy, transfusion services, and drug distribution chains. The draft contains a set of legislative and technical measures aimed at clarifying and supplementing the definitions of basic terms, as well as strengthening oversight of the legal movement of medicines and ensuring the continuity of their supply to patients. ko/mcs