Clobazam, one of the essential drugs for the treatment of epilepsy, is missing from the market again. The reason? The manufacturer is no longer interested in bringing him to Romania because he is obliged to sell it very cheaply. On the other hand, the National Company Unifarm, which brings the medicine through a special needs procedure, is still waiting for the marketing authorization. And all this time, patients whose life depends on this medicine, try to do as everyone can.
Medicine essential for epilepsy patients, unavailable in pharmacies. Archive
Adnana Cotolea is the mother of an 11 -year -old girl suffering from Batten’s disease, a rare genetic disease, which can cause fatal epilepsy seizures. Clobazam is forbid. “We, every year, do not find this medicine in pharmacies. Most of the time, we have to make stocks. There are times when we go to the treatment scheme, we give the child a small amount of medicine to get to them for longer. Otherwise, we replace the drug with some similar ones. We also receive it as a donation from other people who have children or sick relatives in the family ”, The little girl’s mother confessed to us. “But there are children who need an increasing amount.
The woman told us that in Germany, for example, this medicine not only exists in all pharmacies, but is also compensated. “We lived in Germany for four years and we had no problems.
Clobazam is a broad spectrum antiepileptic drug used for the treatment of different types of seizures, but also for migraine prophylaxis. The product, which costs about 30 lei, is issued by the family doctor or specialist through a green prescription. The green recipe is used for sedative, drug and psychotropic drugs partially settled or entirely by the health insurance house. “We paid it almost every time, but the money is not the problem, but the fact that it is not found.”
Substitute drugs don’t always work
Adnana Cotolea explained to us that the product has a special regime and cannot be purchased online from pharmacies abroad. “We cannot take it free, as is the case with other drugs for other conditions. Moreover, once we were lucky to find it, we can only buy the amount prescribed by the doctor for only one month. We do not know if next month we will find the medicine in pharmacies ”the woman told us. “And we still have a problem we face. If, for example, I receive a recipe for 90 pills, and in the pharmacy I find only 60, I have to buy this existing quantity and limit myself to it. Because the recipe cannot be used for the second time, for the remaining 30 pills. It is an absurd situation, but you have nothing to do. Than not to buy at all, you better take less. ” Adnana Cotolea confessed to us that she has been looking for clobazam since January this year. “I understood that it will arrive in pharmacies somewhere in March, April ”.
There are also substitute drugs, which help in case of need, but each patient has his own special needs, continues the parent. What works at one, may not work for the other. “If you ask any neurologist, although we are talking about the same active substance, sometimes, in certain children, it does not work. Moreover, when you replace a drug for epilepsy, you do not simply stop it and start taking something else suddenly. The transition is done gradually, it lasts until the body gets used to the new scheme. And, obviously, there are situations in which the new medication does not work. ”
Why is not Clobazam in Romania?
The manufacturer of this medicine withdrawn from Romania four years ago, due to the policy that the Romanian state practices, namely the lowest price policy. “The problem with us in Romania is the policy of medicines, in the sense that we pay the lowest price in the European Union. And then the producers come to not come to the Romanian market, because they do not rent for them ”the Father continued us.
This is why the responsibility of bringing this medicine to the country was taken over by the Unifarm National Company. “At the moment, the product is in the country, but it is not yet for sale. He explained for “Adevărul” Beatrice Speteanu, pharmacist and president of the Association of Traditional Pharmacies and Practitioners.
Pharmacist: “The patients call us continuously.
The specialist confessed to us that lately the pharmacy is stormed. “Very many patients who ask for this medicine come to us. The phone rings us continuously. And we have nothing to do. We tell people to come back because, as we have been informed, only in a month we will receive the medicine and take it to the shelf. That is, in the middle of April it could be found again. “ However, it is not known for how long, this in the idea that patients need it daily, and the treatment should not be discontinued.
Clobazam is a drug that is released on the green prescription, and in Romania it is brought in an amount that covers a certain necessary. “Each batch of drugs receives a provisional authorization. the pharmacist continues.
The solution, in the hand of the authorities, but also of the doctors
“The solution would be for the drug to receive a permanent market authorization”, Consider Beatrice Speteanu. On the other hand, until a possible regulation of the situation, doctors should be more malleable, more flexible when prescribing treatments, the pharmacist considers. “Doctors could think of treatment alternatives, and patients not only depend on this medicine that is today, and tomorrow they may not be found everywhere or at all. There are other somewhat similar drugs from the benzodiazepine class. The doctor may recommend another benzodiazepine or other antiepileptic drugs. ”
Currently, according to the list of the National Agency for Medicines, 758 drugs for various conditions, from cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases to post transplant drugs, are missing in Romania. And there are at least two reasons, the pharma specialists say. One would be the fact that the policy of the lowest price in Europe is practiced in Romania. Consequence? Companies no longer bring the medicines to us because they should sell them at a lower price than the production. The second major reason is also the clawback tax, that is the amount paid by the producers to the Romanian state from the profit made from the sale of medicines. The manufacturers of innovative drugs pay 25% of the profit to the Romanian state, and the producers of generic drugs – 15%.
