Next Monday the cabinet is expected to approve the recommendations of the Drugs Committee set up by Minister of Health Shlomo Benizri. The committee was assigned the task of examining the addition of new drugs and technologies to the health care basket. Approval of the new drugs will go into force a few days after the measure is published in Gazettes.
The 21-member committee, which included representatives of the Ministry of Health, the health funds, physicians, and public figures, concluded its debates today with a recommendation to add 122 new drugs and technologies to the health basket, at a cost of NIS 255 million. The cost increased in recent days, after the government approved a further 85 million supplement for the basket, up from the original NIS 170 allocated in the first budget draft.
The committee was presented with 380 drugs whose overall cost was NIS 1 billion. Committee members also faced considerable pressure from drug companies seeking to have their products included in the basket.
From the committee's recommendations it emerges that most cancer treatment drugs will henceforth be included in the basket, including Herceptin and Taxol.
Minister of Health Shlomo Benizri wants the committee to pursue its activity this year as well, allocating an additional budget for this. Senior Ministry of Health officials support the committee's continued activity "so that it may hold real-time discussions on new drugs released on the market, and examine the exclusion from the basket of outdated drugs."
See editorial: Under Public Pressure
Published by Israel's Business Arena January 5, 2000