The Tsipras government on Tuesday continued to emphasize its clash with "big pharma", this time announced that a rebate of up to 241 million euros was not collected from pharmaceutical companies by previous governments between 2006 and 2010,
The Tsipras government on Tuesday continued to emphasize its clash with "big pharma", this time announced that a rebate of up to 241 million euros was not collected from pharmaceutical companies by previous governments between 2006 and 2010,
The announcement came in a press conference by new less than three ministers - labor, health and the alternate health minister - who charged that the sum was not collected due to "illegal actions and omissions."
According to Health Minister Andreas Xanthos the rebate was not collected for the years 2006-7 because joint ministerial decision was later abrogated by the Council of State (CoS), following a legal challenge by pharmaceutical companies, for "procedural reasons", as he claimed.
He added that a new decision was not issued for the period, nor for the 2008-9 period, whereas for 2009-10 such a joint decision was issued but 40 million euros in rebates were not collected.