I expect that by the end of the year, along with the new director of the Health Insurance Fund after July 14, we will agree on the inclusion of another medicine from the Foster group, intended for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, on the positive list of medicine. Around 4 percent of the population lives with asthma, said the Health Insurance Fund (HIF) director SashoKlekovski.
Together with the new HIF director, Klekovski says that he’s currently making efforts to secure additional price reductions to create space for the introduction of the latest generation of three-component medicines.
He says that two-component therapies are currently used, and the next step is the introduction of three-component medicines, which allow for better control and coverage of a larger number of cases.
Klekovski adds that most often medicines in Macedonia are registered with the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices (MALMED) and during registration it is determined for which diagnoses and indications a certain medicine can be used.
“In two years, we have increased the budget for the positive list from EUR 50 million to EUR 60 million. However, such increases must be accompanied by greater control of the indications for which medicines are prescribed. Medicines have precisely defined indications. If they need to be prescribed for a new indication, the manufacturer is obliged to extend the registration with MALMED. However, the manufacturer must officially report this to MALMED, because we cannot finance or allow the prescription of medicines outside the indications established by their registration,”Klekovski stressed.
