HSE 'could save millions on drugs'

[Posted: Mon 13/07/2009 by Joanne McCarthy]

The HSE could save €100 million on nine drugs alone if UK generic medicines were used, Fine Gael have claimed.

According to Fine Gael’s spokesperson for health, Dr James Reilly TD, substituting generic medicines at the UK cost could save between €90 and €100 million euro on the state’s bill for just nine drugs.

“I have examined the cost of the top twenty most expensive drugs dispensed on the medical card scheme.  Nine of these drugs have a generic form available.  My research shows that the Irish taxpayer is being ripped off with Irish generics costing up to 20 times more than their UK equivalent,” Dr Reilly said. 

“The state could save €90 million on these nine drugs alone if the cost of generic medicines here was reduced to the UK price.  If generic medicines were substituted for all prescriptions of these nine drugs savings could climb to €100 million,” he added.

The figures revealed by Dr Reilly show that the equivalent of just €1.11 is charged in the UK for the generic ulcer drug Omeprazole. The cost of the generic drug in Ireland is €20, meaning that almost €21 million could be saved if UK prices were used here for that drug alone.

“It is abundantly clear that if these savings were expanded over the entire drugs bill hundreds of millions could be saved annually.  This represents billions over the last 12 years of this incompetent Government.

“This Government thinks it’s tough when it cancels cervical cancer vaccination programmes, closes down children’s wards, means tests the terminally ill for medical cards and leaves hundreds of sick people lying on trolleys for days on end.  These options are tough on people but the real tough option is to take on rip-off and waste in our system,” he added.

The other drugs highlighted by Dr Reilly which could reportedly be bought at a fraction of the current cost include Lansoprazole, Pravastatin, Pantoprazole, Amlodipine, Alendronic acid, Venlafaxine, Doxazosin and Risperidone.

JamesH  Posted: 13/07/2009 16:28

Surely this is exactly what Mary Harney is trying to tackle with the pharamcists and the pharmacist are going on strike over.

Thomond  Posted: 13/07/2009 22:32

jamesH. I am afraid you dont understand. Mary Harney is NOT reducing the price of drugs. She wants the high price of drugs to stay high but is reducing the payments to pharmacists by 33%. On medical card prescriptions the pharmacy gets NO profit, it justs gets the bare price that it paid. Pharmacist want the cheapest drugs possible so they dont have to pay out a lot of money when there is nothing in it for them. The Irish Pharmacy Union put a proposal to Mary Harney that pharmacists be allowed to dispense the cheaper generic version of the prescribed medicine. The union reckoned it would save €83 million but Mary harney wants to protect her pals in the big multinational drug companies.

buzz  Posted: 14/07/2009 10:00

This is old news, we all know the huge price difference between generics and branded drugs. The question is, is it the government/pharmacists or pharm companies who benefit from such differences? We need to figure out WHO is making the profit, and target THESE.

Rose  Posted: 17/07/2009 19:10

I suffer from epilepsy. In the UK when generic medication was introduced people on existing epilepsy medication were seriously impacted. The generic versions sometimes caused breakthrough seizures for sufferers with previously controlled epilepsy. I am very worried if existing drugs are replaced by generic versions across the board without assessing the impact on individual illnesses, it could be a disaster for people like me.

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