My blog is
almost always in Greek. Sometimes though, I write in English because I want
my audience to be international. Well, if you wonder why Greece is
bankrupt, I think that here you are going to read an important part of the
answer:
First some
background facts:
A short
presentation of myself: My name is Argirios Argiriou. I have studied Medicine
in Lund, Sweden and I specialized in General Practice in Linkoping Sweden.
Since 2005 I work as a private General Practitioner in my hometown Kavala,
Greece. I still work though, as a locum doctor in Sweden for some weeks every
year, and that helps me to keep in touch with both the Greek and the Swedish
clinical reality.
Some more
background:
Elias Mossialos Professor of Health Policy at London School
of Economics and Political Science; Director at LSE Health gave an interesting
interview the 25 of November 2013 at the Municipal Radio of Athens 9,84. In
this interview he said that the outpatient pharmaceutical expenditure in
Greece, increased from 1 milliard Euros in the year 2000 to 5,1 milliards in
the year of 2009 without any reasonable explanation. According to his
calculations during those 9 years Greece spent 18 milliard Euros more than
needed. And we should remember that that the Greek primary deficit in the year
2009 was 24 milliard Euros.
Not only that: 85% of drug consumption in Greece
was imported medicines!
That gives a sense of how much the pharmaceutical
extravagance in Greece,
contributed to the Greek
economic crisis.
One more
background element:
Last year I
worked as a locum in Sweden was in Amal ( www.amal.se ) which is a municipality with 9000
inhabitants and only one pharmacy while my birthplace in Greece, Hrisoupolis, ( http://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A7%CF%81%CF%85%CF%83%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%B7_%CE%9A%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%AC%CE%BB%CE%B1%CF%82 ) with about the same population as
Amal, has 10 pharmacies.
And now I will
go to the main part of my study:
On September the 24th, 2015 I did a price comparison between eight different generics in Greece and Sweden. I chose some of the most useful and popular medicines in General Medicine in both countries.
I got the prices (Retail Prices) of the Swedish generics from the online National Formulary of Sweden www.fass.se ( You can see them, all the way down on the pages that open from the following Swedish links. Wherever you see the symbol - means integer in Swedish Crones. For example 52 - means 52 Swedish Crones . Unlike the : means that it will follow a decimal number eg 54:50 means 54.5 Swedish Crones ) .
I got the prices (also Retail Prices) of the Greek generics from the site www.galinos.gr which is a private but well updated site that a lot of Greek Doctors use in order to find out the prices of the medicines that they prescribe.
On 24 September 2015, 100 Swedish Crones (SEK) = 10,60 Euro .
For
medicines for chronic diseases, such as the following medicines, the packaging
is usually 28 or 30 tablets/box in Greece, while in Sweden the packaging is
usually of 98 or 100 tablets/box.
Since similar comparisons that I did in
September 2013 ( http://www.pfy.gr/forum/index.php/topic,4432.msg41408.html#msg41408 ) and in June 2014 (http://www.argiriou.blogspot.gr/2014/06/29-june-2014-he-prices-of-some-generic.html ) the Greek medicines are a little bit cheaper
in retail price but most of the Swedish medicines have become a little bit
cheaper in retail price too. So, in comparison with the Swedish medicines the
Greek ones are still much more expensive than the Swedish ones and their
percentual difference in retail price, have in some cases become bigger than
the past years! This time I noticed one more thing: Namely, that some generic
drugs of the same company are cheaper in Sweden than in Greece. The worst thing
is that in one case a drug which is manufactured in Greece (with the name
Rolenium in Greece and the name Relanio in Sweden) is cheaper in Sweden!! I
noticed too that not only generic but even some brand name drugs are cheaper in
Sweden than in Greece.
Omeprazole.
In Sweden the Caps. Omeprazole Bluefish 20 mg x 100 (i.e. a box with 100 capsules of Omeprazole Bluefish 20 mg), costs 53,50 SEK = 5,67 Euro
Omeprazole.
In Sweden the Caps. Omeprazole Bluefish 20 mg x 100 (i.e. a box with 100 capsules of Omeprazole Bluefish 20 mg), costs 53,50 SEK = 5,67 Euro
when
In Greece the Caps. Penrazol 20 mg x 28 costs 12,20 Euro
Ie the generic Omeprazole is 658 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden.
Simvastatin.
In Sweden Tabl. Simvastatin Sandoz 40 mg x 100 costing 63 SEK = 6,67 Euro
http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=20020920000151
when
In Greece the Tabl. Extrastatin 40 mg x 30 costs 16,94 euros
Ie the generic Simvastatin is 746 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden.
Atorvastatin
In Sweden Tabl. Atorbir (Sandoz) 20 mg x 100 costs 73 SEK = 7,73 Euro
http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=20091211000037
when
In Greece the Tabl. Atorvastatin Sandoz 20 mg x 30 costs 13,28Euro
http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/20109#content
In Greece the Tabl. Atorvastatin Sandoz 20 mg x 30 costs 13,28Euro
http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/20109#content
Ie the generic Atorvastatin is 472 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden, and they both come from the same company (Sandoz).
In the case
of Atorvastatin even the brand name drug Lipitor (from the company Pfizer) is
39% cheaper in Sweden.
Namely:
In Sweden
Tabl. Lipitor 20 mg x 90 costs 450,5 SEK = 47,75 Euro
when
In Greece
the same medicine i.e. Tabl. Lipitor 20 mg x 14 costs 10,37 Euro
Finasteride
In Sweden Tabl. Finasterid Accord 5 mg x 98 costs 70,5 SEK = 7,47 Euro
when
In Greece the Tabl. Finastir 5 mg x 30 costs 11,72 euros
http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/18896#content
Ie generic Finasteride is 412 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden
In the
case of Finasteride even the brand name drug Proscar is 57% cheaper in Sweden
than in Greece.
Namely:
In Sweden
Tabl. Proscar 5 mg x 98 costs 347 SEK = 36,79 Euro
when
In Greece
Tabl. Proscar 5 mg x 14 costs 8,28 Euro
Risperidone
In Sweden Tabl. Risperidon STADA 1 mg x 60 costs 58,5 SEK = 6,2 Euro
when
In Greece the Tabl. Rispelen 1 mg x 20 costs 6,71 Euro
Ie generic Risperidone is 224 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden.
In the
case of Risperidon even the brand name drug Risperdal (from the company Janssen)
is 15% cheaper in Sweden than in Greece.
Namely:
In Sweden
Tabl. Risperdal 1 mg x 60 costs 201,5 SEK = 21,3 Euro http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=19931230000011
when
In Greece
Tabl. Risperdal 1 mg x 20 costs 8,22 Euro
http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/4299#content
Olanzapine
In Sweden
Tabl. Olanzapin Actavis 10 mg x 56 costing 117 SEK = 12,4 Euro.
when
In Greece the Tabl.Villamos 10 mg x 28 costs 38,52 Euros.
http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/19008#content
Ie generic Olanzapine is 521 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden.
In the
case of Olanzapine even the generic of the same company (Sandoz) is 5% cheaper
in Sweden than in Greece.
Namely:
In Sweden
Tabl. Olanzapin Sandoz 10 mg x 56 costs 670,5 SEK = 71 Euro http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=20061108000044
When
In Greece
Tabl. Olanzapin Sandoz 10 mg x 30 costs 39,95 €. http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/14110#content
Finally,
in the case of Olanzapine, even the brand name drug Zyprexa from the same
company (Lilly) is 5% cheaper than in Greece.
Namely:
In Sweden
Tabl. Zyprexa 10 mg x 56 costs 875 SEK = 92,7 Euro http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=19960927000119
When
In Greece
Tabl. Zyprexa 10 mg x 28 costs 48,86 Euro. http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/6400#content
Citalopram
In Sweden Tabl. Citalopram Bluefish 20 mg x 100 costs 54 SEK = 5,7 Euro. http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=20090709000023
when
In Greece the Tabl. Seror 20 mg x 28 cost 9,5 Euros. http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/15120#content
Ie generic Citalopram is 493 % more expensive in Greece than in Sweden.
Inhaled combination of Fluticasone proprionate
+ Salmeterol
Even a
drug that is a purely Greek product (it is produced in Pikermi, Athens) by the
Greek company ELPEN, ( www.elpen.gr ), can be found 20% cheaper in Sweden:
Namely, an
asthma medicine which is inhaled and which in Greece it is named "Rolenium
500/50" with 60 doses it costs 46,2 €. http://www.galinos.gr/web/drugs/main/packages/22854#content
The very
same medicine is called in Sweden Relanio 50/500 (or 50/500, it is actually the
same thing) and it costs 365 SEK = 38,6 €. http://www.fass.se/LIF/product?userType=0&nplId=20100423000091
Just take a
look at the pictures at the bottom.
Does the
Greek Government really want to reduce the cost of its pharmaceutical
expenditure?
Then why don’t they reduce the price of generic drugs at Swedish levels?
Postscript : The fact that the prices of generics are held so high, flares on the over-prescribing of medicines by some corrupt doctors. (The larger the super-profits the larger the kickbacks to the Doctors …)
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