Ms Alkistis Christofilou, partner with Rokas Law Firm, had the honor to participate in the top conference in the fields of health sciences and health services research, with a remarkable impact on the country’s health policies, taking place online, on 7-10 December 2020.
The focus of the 2020 Panhellenic Congress is on “Public Health & Political Economy of the COVID-19 Pandemic”.
As member of the panel in the session titled ‘Orphan Drugs: Who “Pays” For Innovation?’, which was held on 8 December 2020, Alkistis explained the implications of the compulsory clawback regulation on the essential constitutional rights of the pharmaceutical companies active in the Greek market. The Supreme Administrative Court admitted the constitutional conformity of the blanket clawback measure, as it was responding to the extreme economic crisis the Hellenic Republic was going through during the recent years. This admission was denied by the Court in the particular case of orphan drugs: the Court decided that orphan drugs deserve to be excluded from the clawback measure owing to their special nature which is acknowledged by the special legal regime they are subject to.
Moderator of the session was Mr Athanassios Vozikis, Associate Professor at the Department of Economics of the University of Piraeus and Director at the Laboratory of Health Economics and Management.
Speakers were Mrs Melpomeni Styliadou, VP Head Public Policy & Healthcare Sustainability, Europe & Canada Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Mr Vasilis Barbounis, Pathologist – Oncologist, Metropolitan Hospital.
Other Panel Discussion Members: Mr Dimitris Zaftis – H-MGA Vice-President, Mr Dimitris Kouvelas, Professor at School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Director Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology.
We would like to thank you, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, for the kind invitation to take part in this successful conference and panel.