Bosnian Cancer Patients 'Waiting Months for Drugs'

Cancer patients in Bosnia are enduring long waits for essential medications as public procurement stalls and as the worldwide supply of the older drugs used by Bosnian health services begins to drop, according to local experts.

Ana Petrovic, president of the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceuticals in Bosnia, UIPL, told BIRN that the procurement procedure for cancer drugs has been beset by delays again this year and authorities have not addressed inefficiencies in the system.

The problem may be compounded by the fact that Bosnia uses older cancer drugs that are being produced in smaller amounts by global pharmaceutical companies, which could be withdrawn altogether in a few years. 

Bosnia has no special legal framework to purchase medication, so it is done under the wide-reaching, non-specific Law on Public Procurement, Petrovic said. 

Under this system in the Federation entity, for example, dozens of local wholesalers bid to provide the drug to the Health Insurance Fund, becoming the middleman between the global drug producers and the local authorities. 

However, according to Petrovic, because the law is not tailor-made for public health procurement, the cheapest bid often wins regardless of the track record of the wholesaler firm. 

Wholesalers sometimes wait for an order from the government to procure any drugs, since they are expensive, which means delays occur.

Additionally, wholesalers who lose bids for reasons such as not having the appropriate license sometimes appeal against the decision - which can mean the whole process being put on hold.

This happens every year, she said, yet no resolution has been found.

Petrovic said that since cancer patients need the right treatment at the right time, with...