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.
