Romanian Senate approved the correction of the claw-back tax

The Romanian senate passed this week the law that institutes the claw-back tax on compensated pharmaceuticals, with amendments that maintain patient access to compensated pharmaceuticals.

The most important change is the elimination of patient sanctions in case pharmacy producers don’t pay the tax. Instead, producers will be sanctioned through penalties and interest payments that are stimulated in the Fiscal Code.

The newly adopted claw-back has established a 10 percent payment threshold for producers out of the annual consumption of compensated pharmaceuticals, which should bring in at least RON 600 mln to the healthcare budget.

Another amendment removed the provision that payers would be taxed both on VAT and revenue made by other market players.

“We believe it is of utmost necessity for the claw-back tax to be implemented, because the health care budget could really use the revenue. However, this tax needs to be correlated with patient needs on the compensation system, and the access to pharmaceuticals needs to be maintained. The Senate’s decision is fair, but the law will have to pass the Chamber of Deputies, for analysis and amending, stated Cristian Lutan, deputy executive director ARPIM (The Romanian Association of International Pharmaceuticals Producers).

The claw back tax has been adopted by the Romanian Government on September 21st, and came into effect on October 1st. The claw-back tax stipulates that pharmaceuticals producers need to support financially the difference between the budgets allocated for pharmaceuticals and the real pharmaceuticals consumption.

“The claw-back issue has not been closed yet, we want it to be predictable, flexible and adaptive to pharmaceutical market shares”, commented Ladislau Ritli, the minister of Public Health, this week.