The Romanian Government approved in its meeting Wednesday, the new frame contract on the provision of medical assistance in 2010, which stipulates that a new methodology will be used to calculate medicine reference prices as of July.
Romanian Health Minister Cseke Attila on Wednesday said the current reference prices for compensated and free medicines will remain unchanged until July 1 when the new calculation methodology will be applied.
Attila said early February that medicine prices would go up starting April 1 as the 2010 state budget law was based on an exchange rate of 4.25 lei for one euro, compared to 4.00 lei per euro in 2009.
The prices of medicine listed in the National Medicine Catalogue are set in April each year according to the exchange rate used in drawing up the budget for the respective year.
The National Medicine Catalogue includes 5,042 medicines whose prices are set by the Health Ministry.