The first online missing-drug warning platform was presented to patients at the 7th Federation of Bulgarian Patients’ Forum Conference. It was created by the Bulgarian Association for Medicines Parallel Trade Development of (BAMPTD) and is now available 24 hours a day. Its demonstration was part of a joint action program between BAMPTD and the patients’ organization, signed in a Memorandum of Cooperation by Ivan Dimitrov – Chairman of the Board of Directors of FBPF and Boryana Marinkova – Executive Director of BAMPTD.
The Federation of Bulgarian Patients’ Forum and BAMPTD declared joining their efforts to establish a cooperation program for guaranteed access of Bulgarian patients to therapy. The organizations will unite to fight for an effective regulatory framework to allow rapid delivery in case of proven drug shortages and regulating parallel import of medicines that are unregistered for non-drug-safety related reasons.
The main objectives of the cooperation are to achieve a lasting solution of the availability of medicinal products, to increase access to medicines at favorable prices with guaranteed origin and quality from EEA, to create access for Bulgarian patients to medicines withdrawn from Bulgaria due to lack of commercial interest, widespread use of modern methods of early detection of shortages, etc.
On its website www.parallel-trade-development.org BAMPTD will support the shortage hotline through its nationwide drug alert online platform that will benefit patients till launching the Electronic System of the Bulgarian Drug Agency. The Association urges patients to submit their signals through a convenient form that requires filling in only a residential area, a telephone for feedback and a sought medicine.
During the conference Boryana Marinkova held a discussion with the members of the FBPF on the multifactorial causes of shortages in the world and presented the possibilities of the parallel import for access to lower prices of medicinal products with additional guarantee of origin and safety. The necessary legislative changes for fast intra-community supplies in case of shortages as well as the use of the parallel distribution for deliveries of unregistered medicinal products withdrawn from Bulgaria due to lack of commercial interest on the part of the producers were also discussed.
To talk about parallel import, what benefits it generates, as well as signaling for missing medicines on-line in the studio are Boryana Marinkova – Executive Director of the BAMPTD and Anton Manolev – Quality Control Manager of BestaMed.