Pressing debates have lately centred on pharmaceuticals price regulation. The Ministry of Health is convinced that pharmaceuticals prices in Lithuania are high due to overly high mark-ups; however, this presumption is fallacious given at least two facts: first, the VAT has been raised and, second, the producer’s rather than the trader’s price comprises a total of 60 percent in the price of medicines. So it’s small wonder that after one month of pharmaceuticals prices being regulated, the prices did not go down or fell not as low as expected or even climbed for some of the medicines. Being unable to put up with such an outcome, at first the Ministry moved to tighten the Governmental resolution that specifies the procedure for mark-up calculation. From now on, mark-ups must be calculated not from the declared price of a pharmaceutical but from its purchase price. What may be other potential steps of the government? LFMI’s President Rūta Vainienė spoke on this issue on Lithuanian National Radio.
