“The poor state of the infrastructure brings two major downsides: one is the delivery time, which have doubled and tripled, and the second is the maintenance costs of car fleets, which rose four-five times in the past two years,” the President of the Association of Medication Distributors in Romania (APMR), Viorel Vasile, told Business Standard.
According to APMR statistics, the delivery deadline for medications in rural areas is sometimes even twice as long as similar distances abroad, and local fleets are much older. The two elements lead to costs that are two-three times higher in rural regions.
In urban areas, considering that the infrastructure did not develop at the same pace as the car park makes delays even more extensive. “In large cities, such as Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, and Timisoara, the deadlines of distribution to pharmacies and hospitals in the past one and a half to two years increased three-four times. If in the past we could afford to make a route twice a day, now it is just one per day, with 20-30 pharmacies per car. Car service-related costs have surged,” Vasile said.
