The deadline for the adoption of the list that will be used by the National Health Insurance Fund, the health ministry and the hospitals to pay for drug supplies has been extended to January 30.

The list was scheduled to take effect on April 13, 2008 but the government only put together the commission that will draw it up some ten days ago.

Drug manufacturers said they suspect a further extension may have to be granted.

No conspiracy theory here, just administrative inadequacy, said Rossen Kazakov, executive director of the association of pharmaceutical manufacturers.

He added that some 60 new generic and cheaper drugs are now unlikely to make the list to the detriment of patients.

Deyan Denev, executive director of the Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria, the delay cold cause major problems if the NHIF decides to negotiate drug supplies for 2009.

In the interim between the expiry of the old and the adoption of the new list, the current rules will be abolished and the new rules would not have taken effect and having the negotiations in an environment of complete arbitrariness would be dangerous, said Denev.

The drug manufacturers are also unhappy with the refusal of the heath ministry to register new prices for some 200 generics.

The companies are allowed by law to adjust their pricelists for inflation on semiannual basis but the health ministry argues they had already done this with the automatic re-registration of the drugs in January 2008.

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