Minister Koca's assessment of the medicine shortage

Health Minister Koca said regarding the claims that some drugs cannot be found on the market, "This is the most important issue on our agenda. We will solve the problems. Costs have increased, we have a roadmap for a solution. It is not right for drug prices to increase once a year. We believe that it should happen at least twice during certain periods." Health Minister Fahrettin Koca made a statement regarding the news that patients cannot find some drugs in pharmacies. Minister Koca stated that this was the most important issue on their agenda and said, "We will solve the problems. Costs have increased. We have a roadmap for a solution. It is not right to increase drug prices once a year. We believe that it should be at least twice in certain periods. However, I should state that our patient numbers and prescription numbers increased by 40 percent during this period. Therefore, patient density, high number of prescriptions, high consumption of certain drugs, and also the existence of raw material problems in the world are important reasons. In addition, the expectation of an increase in the euro exchange rate average of the previous year in February is further increasing this problem. Therefore, we need to take a different approach to this and quickly put into effect the measure that will solve the issue. There may be more than one update during the year, we are discussing it. We worked on what we can do specifically for this period, in the period before February. It will not take too long."