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Medicinal Products

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2020

Tuesday, 23 June 2020

Questions (455)

Anne Rabbitte

Question:

455. Deputy Anne Rabbitte asked the Minister for Health the amount spent on medicines by the State; the amount or percentage that related to generics and biosimilars, respectively; his plans to increase the use of generics and biosimilars; the saving achieved in biosimilars and generics in each of the past five years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12044/20]

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Written answers

The HSE and my Department are actively engaged in implementing domestic policies to maximise efficiency in our medicines usage.

Our commitment to generic medicines was demonstrated in the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013 whereby the Act provided for the introduction of a system of generic substitution and reference pricing. The Act permits pharmacists to substitute medicines prescribed, provided they have been designated as safely interchangeable by the Health Products Regulatory Authority. Reference pricing involves the setting of a common reimbursement price, or reference price, for a group of interchangeable medicines, and this is the price that the HSE will reimburse to pharmacies for all medicines in this group, regardless of the individual medicines’ price.

In terms of biosimilar medicines, the HSE's Acute Hospitals Drugs Management Programme (AHDMP) has a biosimilar strategy in place since 2017. This is making considerable progress using a collaborative to bring about changes in prescribing practice.

In addition, the HSE Medicines Management Programme completed an evaluation process in 2019 for the identification of the best-value biological (BVB) medicines for TNF- inhibitors under the High-Tech Drug arrangements.

In June 2019, the HSE introduced a system of gain-share to encourage the prescribing of the BVB medicines which has been largely successful in increasing uptake of these medicines.

To the end of April, the HSE has estimated savings of €14.5m in 2020 from biosimilar switching initiatives. Should this trend continue to year end, savings of approximately €30m have been forecast for 2020.

In relation to your specific data requests, I have asked the HSE to respond to you directly as they have responsibility for this area.

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