Muşat & Asociaţii successfully represented Farmexim, one of the leading medicine importers and distributors on the domestic market, in a litigation concerning the cancellation of claw-back contributions, thus carrying on the sequence of favorable solutions obtained by the Muşat & Asociaţii team in this sector starting with 2012. The ruling was issued by Bucharest Court of Appeals on 25 June 2013.
“This decision becomes a reference point in the Court of Appeals’ case-law in the field of disputes having as their object the cancellation of claw-back contributions, this being the first time when a court of law, in addition to VAT matters, sanctions the National Health Insurance House (CNAS) for the erroneous character of reportings between County Health Insurance Houses and CNAS. It was a complex file, with many legal novelties, which required a series of integrated investigations, in particular given that the claw-back tax is a topic of interest both for the authorities, and for medicine manufacturers”, said Octavian Popescu, Partner Muşat & Asociaţii, the coordinator of the team of attorneys comprising Călin Dobre and Ionuţ Iablonschi, both Senior Associates with Muşat & Asociaţii.
The claw-back tax, intended to be an additional financing source for the health care system, is a quarterly contribution payable for the medicinal products sold in the social health insurance system in Romania.
Ever since 2012, Mușat & Asociații successfully advised several companies acting in the pharma industry and obtained, in 2012, the cancellation of notices referring to the claw-back contribution issued by CNAS both for the period ranging between the fourth quarter of 2009 – the third quarter of 2011, and for the first quarter of 2012, amounting to more than EUR 29 million.
Mușat & Asociații has acquired broad expertise in the pharma industry, acting as legal advisor for an extensive portfolio of internationally reputed companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline in the Europharm acquisition process, Roche Romania during the investigation initiated by the Competition Council, having as its object an alleged abuse of dominant position, Belupo Pharmaceuticals and Cosmetics , top Croatian manufacturer of medicinal products and member of the Podravka group, in connection with an investigation conducted by the competition authority, as well as Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Novartis , and Sermedic (part of the Servier international group) in issues relating to the legislation applicable in the pharma, competition and/or intellectual property areas of practice. Furthermore, the Mușat & Asociații team represented medicine producer Lundbeck before national courts in disputes concerning the protection of industrial property rights.