Press announcements and conferences

Coronavirus – your questions answered

Q. What is a coronavirus? Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans. In humans, several coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus causes coronavirus disease COVID-19.

COVID-19 is the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus. This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

What’s next?

12/05/2019 Diseases will not give up or disappear. Luckily, neither will science nor researchers. Just as they didn’t in the 1980s when the needle and the syringe were the only known way of injecting insulin, or in the 1990s when HIV meant a death penalty, or in the 2000s when destroying the cancer cells also affected the healthy cells.

What would it mean to slow down the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease? Could antibodies slow down our resistance to antibiotics and help overcome bacterial infections? What cell therapies would it take to avoid having aggressive chemotherapy ever again? And is there potential for gene therapy to reduce the toll of lifelong treatment?

Life-saving treatments may not reach bulgarian patients in 2018 due to the moratorium on their payment imposed by the NHIF

Many new drug therapies that patients in most European countries receive may remain inaccessible to Bulgarian patients in 2018, the Association of the Research-Based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria (ARPharM) warned. The reason is a moratorium on their payment by the National Health Insurance Fund in 2018 approved by the Supervisory Board of the NHIF and submitted for consideration by the Parliament. It appears that due to this sanction the widely proclaimed increase of healthcare funds by 400 million BGN will not lead to improvement in the drug treatment of Bulgarian patients. Some of the new therapies are life-saving, offering more treatment options, and in some cases they may even be more cost-efficient for NHIF.

Memorandum of Cooperation and Partnership

Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Dr. Ilko Semerdzhiev, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria (ARPharM) Zoya Paunova and director of ARPharM Deyan Denev have signed a memorandum of cooperation and partnership.

Ministry of Health and the ARPharM will cooperate to ensure access to high quality and effective medicines for Bulgarian citizens. The document provides for the implementation of control and joint inspections by the BDA, National Health Insurance Fund, the National Revenue Agency and the Customs Agency. There will be checked persons trading with medicines in the country and through its borders. It will be monitored the availability of marketing authorizations for medicinal products with compliance to the good distribution practice and the rules for prescribing and selling drugs.

"Daniela Seizova - In the Name of Life" – 2013

Federation Bulgaria Patients' Forum for the fifth consecutive year organized the awarding of "Daniela Seizova - in the name of life" prizes. Awards have been established at the initiative of the late Theodora Zaharieva in memory of Daniela Seizova - health journalist with outstanding service in promoting the problems of cancer patients and patients in general, both failed the battle with cancer.

Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Bulgaria and its member companies traditionally provide the financial support for these awards.

Very touching moment in awards for 2013 was the prize "Brave Heart," awarded by the mayor of Sofia, Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova. This is a reward for children and teenagers asserted their rights, and the winner was 11-year-old Nelina Nikolova from Gorna Oriahovica for her courage to declare their disease and confront public opinion that psoriasis is contagious.