Life-support drugs run short in Greece

The Greek health ministry is under pressure to cut social funding covering the cost of most drugs.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Athens (CNN) -- Having to skip cancer therapy twice in the last two months due to a lack of drugs normally available through Greece's national health system, 45-year-old Morfo Karadona says a new fear has entered her life.

"I have been battling cancer for the last six years. Now I can't find the drugs I need. Ensuring I get my treatment every two weeks is a matter of life and death for me."

Karadona is one of thousands of Greeks trapped in a vicious circle involving a cash-strapped government unable to pay its bills.

She spoke as some international pharmaceutical companies have limited supplies to Greece, and increased fears of a parallel export trade as wholesalers and pharmacies look for cash.

Diagnosed as the sick man of Europe, Greece is in its sixth year of recession and hugely in debt, struggling to put its finances in order.

While servicing a massive bailout loan to its lenders, the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the state owes pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies around 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) through accumulated debt, Health Minister Andreas Lykouretzos admits.

The president of Greece's Association of Pharmaceutical Companies, Konstantinos Frouzis, who is also the vice president of Novartis Greece, warns that "companies are heading towards a dead end. It is impossible to run a business when there is no cash flow to plan ahead."

There are legal limitations to ensure that drugs cannot be treated like any other commodity: Pharmaceutical companies are legally bound to continue to supply hospitals with so called "critical medicines," which include those dealing with life-threatening diseases such as HIV.

Go here to see the original:
Life-support drugs run short in Greece