Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 October 2016
565. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the extent to which central procurement and generic prescribing have been each identified and assessed for potential to reduce health service costs without in any way affecting the quality and efficacy of the service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30984/16]
View answerMy Department has created a new Community Pharmacy, Dental, Optical and Aural Policy unit to bring a renewed focus to the development of policy in relation to community pharmacy and the issues associated with achieving maximum benefit to patients.
Driving further efficiencies and savings on the cost of medicines for the State is a key focus for my Department and the HSE. The HSE has recently established a Drugs Management Portfolio, which has already identified a range of projects to optimise value in the Primary Care and Hospital settings which includes examining issues such as the standardisation of procurement practices.
The Portfolio also includes the work of the HSE's Medicines Management Programme which introduced the preferred drugs initiative to facilitate more cost-effective prescribing particularly in relation to high-cost medicines. It continues to engage with general practitioners to reinforce the message around safe, effective and cost-effective prescribing including generic prescribing.
In addition generic substitution and reference pricing continues to be rolled-out contributing to higher penetration rates for the use of generics. As part of the Troika programme, Ireland was set a target of 70% generic penetration of the off-patent market by volume by end of 2016. In Q2 of 2016 generics accounted for approximately 74% of the total off-patent market by volume and almost 52% by value. Therefore we are already ahead of our target for the end of 2016. The implementation of generic substitution and reference pricing has delivered savings of €47 million in 2014 and €94 million in 2015.
Generic substitutions and referencing pricing is being progressed incrementally and forms part of the HSE’s Medicines Control Plan for 2016. 50 substances were identified for inclusion in the lists and 47 have been included to date. I have recently requested that the HPRA review an additional 15 substances for inclusion on the interchangeable lists.
