Decision on the Pricing of Drugs Has Been Amended

On 23 July 2023, the Presidential Decree numbered 6932 on the Amendment of the Decision on Pricing of Medicinal Products for Human Use ("Decision") was published in the Official Gazette numbered 32257.

With the provisional articles added to the Decision:

• It has been arranged that the euro value in Turkish Lira to be used in the pricing of medicinal products for human use was increased by 30.5% to 14.0387 TRY in July 2023. While applying this increase, it is stated that the offsetting process in Article 3/3 of the Decision will not be applied.
• In parallel with the exchange rate change, the price thresholds mentioned in the Decision were updated, setting these amounts to 48.41 TRY for price-protected products and 25.30 TRY for other products.
• In terms of the periodic euro value update, it was stated that the increases up to 4 TRY applied within the scope of Provisional Article 7 of the Decision will not be taken into account, and the increases up to 4 TRY after the update will be added to the sales prices of the products to the warehouse without changing the TRY value.

The new regulation came into effect the day after its publication.

Evaluations

In principle, under second paragraph of the Article 2 of the Decision, the value of 1 euro in Turkish Lira to be used in the pricing of medicinal products for human use is determined by multiplying the annual average euro value, which will be calculated based on the daily euro foreign exchange selling rate realizations published in the Official Gazette of the previous year by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, by an adjustment coefficient set at 60%. Accordingly, the Price Evaluation Commission meets within the first 45 days of each year and announces the 1 euro value to be used in pricing medicinal products for human use.

In 2022, the exchange rate used in the pricing of medicinal products for human use was updated three times, and in the last update made in December 2022, it was stated that there would be no update to the rate in 2023. In the first 45 days of the new year, the exchange rate update was not made, as the Minister of Health made an early update that should have been made in February in order to eliminate the shortage in the market due to the supply of medicines.

However, due to the rapid increase in the exchange rate since the beginning of 2023, it was deemed necessary to update again in July.

The rapid rise in the exchange rate has necessitated rapid measures to be taken in updating pharmaceutical prices in order to ensure the availability of products in the market, and the need for a new increase has arisen without waiting for the update to be made in the first 45 days of 2024 in accordance with the legislation. If a new update is to take place by December, as was the case last year, this will again be possible by Presidential Decree.