For every 10 innovative medicines needed by Greek patients, the Government funds fewer than 2!
PhARMA Innovation Forum (PIF) expresses its deep concern over the critical situation facing the hospital medicines reimbursement system in Greece. Data from the first half of 2025 reveal an unprecedented reality: clawback on hospital medicines reached 80,7%, marking a further increase compared to the first half of 2024.
The negative trend runs counter to previous government commitments to gradually reduce this mechanism, commitments that had raised expectations in line with the country’s broader economic growth. Instead, the continued deterioration sends a clear message about the urgent need for joint action by the Government and the industry to implement meaningful reforms. It is evident that a mechanism introduced as an emergency measure during the years of the economic crisis – an era that Greece has now firmly left behind – must be brought down to genuinely sustainable levels.
This development confirms that long-standing inequalities in the financing of hospital pharmaceutical expenditure have now evolved into a structural crisis. PIF, recognizing these challenges, seeks to stand alongside the Government as a partner in accelerating the necessary reforms and ensuring a more rational allocation of available resources, so as to safeguard patients’ access to innovative treatments and the sustainability of the companies involved.
Ms. Kavita Patel, President of PhARMA Innovation Forum & General Manger of Roche Greece & Cyprus, stated: “80,7% is a particularly alarming figure for pharmaceutical innovation in Greece. In practical terms, it means that for every 10 innovative medicines needed by Greek patients for serious, chronic, or life-threatening conditions, the Government covers fewer than two, shifting the entire cost burden onto the companies that invest in and provide innovative treatments. And this happens in a country that is characterised by some of the lowest medicine prices in Europe. The data for the first half of 2025 clearly confirm the estimates that PIF had already timely raised in the previous period regarding the unsustainability of the current situation. Our concerns are clearly reflected in the data and highlight the need for immediate and meaningful interventions.”
PIF makes it clear that addressing this issue requires genuine partnership between the state and the pharmaceutical sector. In a spirit of cooperation, we extend an open invitation to the Ministry of Health for an immediate, institutional meeting and a meaningful, honest dialogue, with the aim of co-designing a sustainable, predictable, and fair pharmaceutical expenditure system. We believe that only through joint effort can the solutions be implemented that respond both to patients’ needs and to the capabilities of the healthcare system.
