Krzysztof Kopeć: Summary of the Year of Domestic Drug Manufacturers

Krzysztof Kopeć, President of the National Drug Manufacturers:
The most important events of 2022 - Russia's attack on Ukraine and the economic crisis - also affected our industry. The refugee crisis has caused an increase in the demand for medicines in Poland, and together with the Ministry of Health, we have faced this challenge. We also joined the aid for Ukraine and organized the transport of one million packages of medicines donated by National Medicines Producers.

In the shadow of war and crises
Since the beginning of the war, the turmoil in the energy market has kept us awake at night. We appeal to the government to freeze its prices in our sector for 2023 and to protect it against interruptions in its supply, because even a few hours of power outage stops production for several days.
In addition to record inflation, the prices and costs of transporting substances for the production of medicines increased. The price of shipping a standard container from the port of Shanghai to the EU is now six times higher than in 2019. Energy has increased by more than 230% compared to last year, by a quarter of the price of packaging, and by several hundred percent the cost of waste disposal. Other industries offset these gains by increasing the prices of their goods and services. Ours are agreed with the Ministry of Health, so we can't automatically raise them, and we don't want to pass these costs on to patients. Therefore, we call for indexation of drug prices and increase of NHF subsidies for drugs, so that patients do not pay more in pharmacies.

Work on the Reimbursement Act
Drug shortages plaguing the entire EU are also forcing the Polish government to act. The Ministry of Health removed "price corridors" from the draft amendment to the reimbursement act, which would eliminate medicines from reimbursement and increase the risk of their shortages. Another desirable change in the project is the increase in NHF subsidies for drugs, which will reduce the patient's participation in these costs, which - according to the OECD - is one of the highest in the EU and is growing.
However, the draft act lacks an effective mechanism to increase the production of drugs in Poland. The guarantee of a fixed drug price proposed by PZPPF for producers who manufacture ¼ of their reimbursed products in our country would encourage foreign companies to invest in Poland, and it would ensure financial stability for domestic companies needed to increase production.

Innovativeness and competitiveness of the sector
Work with the Medical Research Agency resulted in the development of the Development Plan for the Biomedical Sector in Poland, which assumes support for projects of domestic producers. This is a guarantee that public money will return to Polish patients in the form of specific drugs introduced to our market and manufactured by domestic companies. For years, the domestic pharmaceutical industry has been in the top three of the most innovative industries in Poland, so no one should have any doubts that generic drugs have a huge potential for innovation.
Together with the Ministry of Development, we worked on restoring the production of active substances in Poland and the European Union. As a result of our petition, the European Parliament obliged the European Commission to introduce mechanisms to ensure the competitiveness of substances produced in the EU against cheaper Asian ones.

In 2023, we want to continue activities increasing access to biological therapies in Poland, because - although the expiry of patents on biological drugs and competition on this market reduce prices - the percentage of Polish patients treated in this way still differs from the availability in other EU countries.