The health ministry said this week it had secured an additional €3m to its budget in order to ensure the supply of new and innovative drugs for the treatment of Hepatitis C, Amyloidosis and Multiple Sclerosis, and for the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer for all girls aged 12 of age. The health ministry said there were a number of new drugs on the market for these conditions that bring better results for patients and these would be imported for public hospitals. For HPV the free vaccine programme would begin on 1 January, 2016. Meanwhile, the latest reduction in medicine prices of 8.5% on average came into effect on Monday 29  June. The ministry said that with the latest reduction, drugs prices had fallen 23% over the past six months. The ministry said that the wholesale price of antibiotics has dropped over 30% and cholesterol medications by over 40%.