« Dr. Panovski »: It is impossible for pharmaceutical companies to secretly or publicly agree on drug prices

Following the announcement of the Committee for Protection of Competition, which said there was a cartel association, they announced this afternoon by the Pharmaceutical House « Dr. Panovski ».

From there they say that AD « Dr. Panovski » has so far not received a judgment from the Administrative Court, nor from other competent institutions.

– The aforementioned public procurement, in the past 8 years, has already been the subject of interest to the competent state institutions. In the interest of publicly informing the public, we believe that it is necessary to emphasize that the Administrative Court in two previous procedures has twice established that JSC « Dr. Panovski »- Skopje has not committed any offense and thus rejected the allegations that the business competition was allegedly violated. Hence, we are extremely surprised and amazed at how it is possible for the same case, the same court, to decide otherwise in a third procedure.

Taking into account that AD « Dr. Panovski » is a company with foreign capital and representative of renowned world pharmaceutical companies in Northern Macedonia, it represents medicines for the most severe painful patients who are treated in public health, and we have an obligation to protect our corporate reputation.

It is completely impossible for any pharmaceutical companies to secretly or publicly agree on drug prices, as they are regulated exclusively by the Ministry of Health. This means that for the aforementioned Public Procurement AD « Dr. Panovski » offered prices in the amount that were previously determined by the line authorities.

According to the above, our legal team is preparing to use all extraordinary remedies before the domestic courts, but also to address the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg for legal harassment. In the meantime, we will also address the representatives of the international factor in the country, who will inform them of this violated legal certainty and endangered rule of law, which practically makes the circumstances of our business functioning, in order to protect the rights, integrity and business reputation of the company.

We encourage the executive and legislature to take all the necessary actions for real reforms in the justice system. It is high time to put a point of self -government in the judiciary, which is also reflected on private companies that have been regularly filling the budget of Northern Macedonia for 30 years, ”they say.