Ministry of Health is taking measures to address the shortage of drugs used in cancer treatment

Measures to address the shortage of oncological drugs for essential therapy, which are both first-line treatments and part of various combinations with innovative therapies that extend patient survival, have been taken by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and the National Council on Prices and Reimbursement of Pharmaceutical Products, the Ministry of Health said on February 21.

The measures affect more than 40 medicinal products, the aim of which is to prevent their exclusion from the Positive Medicines List and the deprivation of Bulgarian citizens from health insurance coverage of the main therapy for their condition.

The reasons for the potential exclusion of these drugs include the administrative burden on marketing authorisation holders and the financial mechanisms applied to date.

The first measure involves changes to the Regulation on the conditions, rules, and procedures for regulating and registering the prices of pharmaceutical products. With the new provisions, the period for reviewing price changes for unique internationally non-proprietary name oncology drugs will be extended from six to twenty-four months.

This measure will significantly ease the burden on marketing authorisation holders and allow for the long-term preservation of these products on the Bulgarian market, which is less attractive for globally scarce molecules, according to the Ministry of Health.

The second change involves allocating a separate budget in the NHIF 2025 Budget Law for essential oncology drugs, ensuring full health insurance coverage for the basic treatment of cancer patients. This will reduce the financial burden on these drugs in cases of overspending in the overall oncology treatment payments. The allocated funds amount to 26 million BGN, and the change has already been approved by the NHIF Supervisory Board.