Bulgaria claims to have curbed medicine fraud with EU verification system

Euractiv

28-07-2025

Bulgaria has completed the full implementation of the European Union's medicines verification system, a milestone aimed at curbing the circulation of falsified pharmaceuticals and mitigating financial fraud.
According to an exclusive statement from the Health Ministry to Euractiv, the system, operational across the EU since 2019, is designed to prevent the resale of individual medicine packages - a loophole that had previously contributed to significant financial losses for Bulgaria's National Health Insurance Fund.
The Health Ministry told Euractiv that the verification system now covers all actors on the Bulgarian pharmaceutical market, including manufacturers, wholesalers, parallel distributors, and retail pharmacies.
"In 2025, the NHIF's information system was also upgraded with a module to monitor the verification codes of medicines dispensed in outpatient care. This control is now applied continuously," the ministry added. Long-running 'con-job'
Although the system has been partially operational in Bulgaria since February 2019, only around half of the dispensed medicine packages were being properly "decommissioned" at the end of the supply chain. This allowed the same medicine package to be sold and reimbursed two or even three times, with the state paying the bill.
In 2023, the government introduced a full verification system for medicines dispensed in hospitals, which pharmaceutical sector associations say has addressed fraud costing millions of euros.
Dimitar Marinov, president of the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union, cited the example of a pharmacy in Sofia whose turnover dropped tenfold following the changes.
He also mentioned isolated cases of illegal online sales of medicines worth tens of thousands of euros, which were reported to the police.
Deyan Denev, executive director of the Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria (ARPharM), noted that some fraud schemes were uncovered when pharmaceutical companies noticed discrepancies between the number of medicine packages delivered to the Bulgarian market and the quantities reimbursed by the NHIF.
He described a case where the same medicine had been dispensed in different pharmacies and reimbursed twice by the NHIF. An administrative check later revealed that a single pharmacy and wholesaler had created fictitious transactions worth €2 million, buying medicines for €2 million but claiming to have sold medicines worth €4 million, with no clear source for the surplus.
Within just two weeks of implementing full verification, the NHIF refused to pay for €150,000 worth of medicines due to irregularities. Ten similar cases were reported in other EU countries, where medicines appeared for sale that should have already been marked as used in Bulgaria.
Each month, 1.6 million Bulgarians receive medicines from the NHIF, with annual reimbursements amounting to nearly €1.5 billion.
"We cannot say that most reimbursed medicines were fraudulent. These were isolated incidents, but serious enough to be addressed as they are now, through a preventive system," said Denev from ARPharM. Criminalising medicine fraud
Financial abuse in the pharmaceutical sector has led Bulgaria to consider criminalising the illegal trade in medicines, which until now has been punishable only through fines and administrative sanctions.
Boryana Marinkova, executive director of the Bulgarian Association for the Development of Parallel Trade in Medicines, told Euractiv that further steps are needed to curb illegal medicine sales.
"Illegal trade and smuggling of medicines must be treated as a crime. This includes the entirely illegal online sale of prescription medicines, which poses serious risks to patients," she said, referring to cancer, diabetes and other treatments offered through social media and online platforms.
"We believe pharmaceutical crimes should be prosecuted under the Penal Code," Marinkova said, adding that institutions have committed to a legislative initiative in this direction.
"I hope criminal sanctions, including prison terms, will be introduced for those committing medicine-related crimes. This would have a strong deterrent effect and benefit society. The most vulnerable people, those with the lowest health literacy, suffer the most from medicine fraud," she concluded.
[Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire]