Pat Upton
Question:234 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Health the savings to his Department which would result from the replacement of branded drugs by generic drugs.
Written Answers. - State Expenditure on Drugs.
Pat Upton
Question:235 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Health the expenditure by his Department on branded drugs and generic drugs for the most recent year for which information is available.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 234 and 235 together.
The State incurs expenditure on drugs through allocations to hospitals, expenditure on the community drug schemes and the provision of drugs on the general medical services scheme. The varied nature of this expenditure means that detailed information down to individual drug level is not available in respect of all areas of the State's activity.
Information to this level of detail is available, however, in relation to the general medical services scheme which accounts for approximately two thirds of total State expenditure on drugs and medicines. In 1992, expenditure on branded drugs in the scheme amounted to £95.5 million and expenditure on generic drugs in the scheme amounted to £9.8 million.
An analysis of all GMS prescribing during 1991 which was carried out by the General Medical Services (Payments) Board indicated that, if on all possible occasions the cheapest available generic product had been prescribed and dispensed, savings of £6.3 million would have been realised in the scheme.
The present agreement between my Department and the Irish Medical Organisation envisages that a saving of £12.5 million on drugs expenditure will be achieved in the current year by doctors prescribing more economically.