Adonis Georgiadis said that the government is “creating a new architecture for the benefit of patients,” referring to the draft law on the establishment of the Innovation Fund, which was approved by majority vote in the Social Affairs Committee and will be discussed and voted on in Parliament tomorrow and the following day.

The bill, titled “Establishment of an Innovation Fund – Access of patients to new medicines and therapies – Improvement of health services and other provisions,” received support from New Democracy, while the Communist Party of Greece and Plefsi Eleftherias voted against it. The remaining parties reserved their positions for the plenary debate.

Concluding the committee discussion, Georgiadis stressed that the bill aims to address “a real problem”: ensuring access for patients with genuine needs to new innovative medicines and therapies, which are now being produced at a rapid pace. He warned that without control mechanisms and procedures, “eventually the entire budget would disproportionately go to these treatments, leaving no money for other medicines.”

He explained that the government is creating “a model and architecture that already exists in other European countries,” noting that Greece has largely copied the Italian model. The study was funded through the Recovery Fund and carried out over several months by public health professor Mr. Souliotis.

The minister underlined the need for these medicines to be evaluated every three years based on their actual results. If they achieve the outcomes promised for patients, they will remain under the lower clawback category; otherwise, they will return to the higher clawback bracket.

Georgiadis dismissed as “a conspiracy theory scenario” claims that the creation of the Innovation Fund followed pressure from U.S. Ambassador to Athens Kimberly Guilfoyle in order to satisfy American pharmaceutical companies seeking lower clawback payments.

“For a claim to make sense, it must also make chronological sense,” he said. He noted that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had announced the intention to establish the Fund in September 2025 during the Thessaloniki International Fair, while Guilfoyle arrived in Greece on November 4, 2025, and Georgiadis himself met her — together with officials from the Finance Ministry — only in March 2026.

“How is it possible that something we announced many months before even meeting Ms. Guilfoyle could be the result of her wishes?” he asked.

Georgiadis also stressed that as Health Minister he has “never negotiated or participated in anything with pharmaceutical companies,” adding that his visits to the United States had taken place in his previous role as Development Minister and were unrelated to pharmaceuticals.

The minister announced that, through a legislative improvement to be submitted tomorrow, patient organizations will also participate in the Innovation Fund committee.

Regarding approvals for medicines, he noted that exception procedures have been expanded so patients can receive treatments through their doctors via the relevant committee, adding: “I sign every decision made by this committee regardless.”

On the new provision imposing a general, horizontal ban on the sale of industrial cannabis flower in all stores, Georgiadis clarified that the measure does not concern medical cannabis — “those are medicines” — nor other cannabis-derived products sold in specialized stores, where supervision is possible because their THC content is low and they do not have narcotic effects.

Responding to criticism from the pharmaceutical industry that Greece has excessively high clawback rates, the minister argued that this stems from Greece’s policy of maintaining higher reference prices and ensuring easier public access to medicines than in many other countries.

“Pharmaceutical companies are not losing money; all of them are profitable,” he said, adding that Greece’s public pharmaceutical spending as a share of GDP is around the European average or slightly above it. “We are not fighting either the pharmaceutical industry or the patients. We are creating a transparent and sustainable system.”

Addressing concerns about staffing shortages at the Nikaia hospital, Georgiadis said the hospital has already been reinforced and will be strengthened further through a new recruitment process. He cited figures showing that the hospital’s budget rose from €33.3 million in 2019 to €58.7 million today — an increase of 76%.

Compared to 2019, the hospital now employs 65 more permanent doctors, 36 more resident doctors, 155 additional nurses, and 133 more support staff members. An additional 13 permanent doctor positions have also been included in the current recruitment announcement.

On hospital mergers, the minister argued that splitting hospitals apart is a mistake. According to him, smaller hospitals benefit from being connected to larger ones because it becomes easier to fill medical positions. He added that local communities would otherwise need to offer major incentives to attract doctors, with uncertain results.

However, he noted that the split between the hospitals of Veria and Naousa was justified because they were already equivalent institutions. “Localism should not prevail,” he said. “The goal is to have hospitals that actually function.”