The Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic is sensitive to the issue of lack of medicines, which is a hot problem not only in Slovakia but also in European countries and the world. A distinction needs to be made between a legislative re-export that is in line with European legislation on the free movement of goods and an illegal re-export. That is one of the main reasons why we are missing drugs. Minister for Health Michal Palkovič has therefore called a meeting between the Slovak Pharmacy Chamber, the State Institute for Drug Control, the Association of Operators of Network Pharmacies and the National Institute for Value and Technology in Health on several topics, primarily the lack of medicines.
The Department of Health cooperates in the analysis of the causes of illegal re-export and the necessary settings to avoid it, in particular the ŠÚKL, which also has an inspection activity in a competitive sense. –It is necessary to identify other options for sanctioning illegal reexport as well as to address this situation more comprehensively, thus avoiding a shortage of medicines for Slovak patients, said Michal Palkovič, Minister for Health.
Illegal reexport is trying to prevent the amendment of the drug law No 362/2011. According to the professional public, a well-established reform of the Ministry of Health's pharmaceutical policy has led to a reduction in the prices of categorised medicines for the patient. On the other hand, the distributors market has found a way to make money in the Schengen area, for example, by using a form by which the distributor asks to remove the medicinal product from the list of categorised medicinal products. The Slovak patient is thus deprived of the opportunity to access the necessary medicine. The solution is to change the rules in the amendment to Law No 362/2011 Z.z. on medicines and medical devices, change of abuse of this form or severe penalties in identified illegal re-export.

In addition to the aforementioned reexport, the causes of the long-term or short-term unavailability of medicinal products are production and logistical reasons, inappropriate accumulation of medicinal products by patients, exceptional situations such as, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic or the military conflict in Ukraine, and shock-increasing demand for certain types of medicinal products. Approximately 27% of patients over the age of 65 have useless and over-prescribed medicines, the problem is also dysfunctional and unmanaged delegated prescription and minimally used individual preparation of medicines. I certainly deal with the situation so that my next successor has more effective regulatory tools, said Michal Palkovič.
Long-term strategic solutions from the point of view of the Ministry of Health that can help Slovak patients include in particular support for the local pharmaceutical industry, support for individual preparation of medicines in pharmacies and new regulatory mechanisms for exceptional imports of medicines.