EU TO ACT ON SPANISH DRUG REIMBURSEMENT

The European Commission is to take action against Spain after ruling that the country's drug reimbursement system is "insufficiently transparent." While social security systems remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of member states, the EU can intervene if it believes individual governments are failing to comply with the so-called Transparency Directive and other measures.

Under the Spanish health insurance system, prescription drugs are available under varying levels of reimbursement, ranging from 60% to 100%. However, for some products -- often diabetes treatments, anti-inflammatories or thrombosis drugs -- individual prescriptions have to be specifically approved before they can be reimbursed.

According to the commission, these "inspection visas" have no verifiable criteria for deciding which prescriptions will be reimbursed. The commission has called for procedure to be brought in line with EU legislation.

Illustrating the government's harsh price controls, consumer drug prices remained flat in September, but were still 2.7% lower year-on-year. The country's overall inflation rate in the month was 3.7%.

Amid efforts to cut costs in recent years, the government has introduced a number of changes to the reimbursement list and imposed a series of price cuts. In 2005 and 2006, drug prices are expected to fall by 4%, while new plans will see the price of medicines that have been available for over 10 years cut by 20%.