John Gilroy (Labour)

The Minister is correct. I have outlined some of the issues that the Bill proposes to address. It also requires that the HSE takes prices in member states and a range of other factors into account and that may generate some interest when we try to tease out the matter.

I shall give one more example of a well known pharmacy chain that operates here that sells a box of paracetamol under a generic name in its UK store at a cost of 16p for 16 tablets but the cheapest price in its Irish store is €1.49 for 12 tablets which is a big discrepancy. It will be interesting to see the international price comparisons and we will watch with great interest.

There is a concern about the inter-changeability of medical preparations because they must be exact. Again, I know from an example that I could cite from the MIMS booklet that to replace one for one might be problematic, particularly dosage levels. I am sure that when we introduce the Bill that the market will take care of the anomaly in dosage levels and that companies will produce the same dosage levels for existing non-generic drugs.

In order for the legislation to be successful it must be accompanied by a comprehensive public awareness campaign. Many people do not appreciate that identical drugs are sold under branded and generic names but that is probably due to successful advertisement campaigns by the pharmaceutical industry. As a former health service professional I was constantly surprised by the questions that people asked. When a person presented with a headache he or she would be offered panadol which would be rejected because he or she had taken paracetamol. Obviously they are the same and there is room for confusion among the general population. Compliance is one of the main concerns and we need to be careful about it.

I would like one addition made to the Bill. I would like a mechanism to institute inquiries if it became obvious that prescribers were over-prescribing branded medication when a generic option was available. Again, I point towards the perceived close relationship between some prescribers and the pharmaceutical industry and I am not saying that it is anything stronger than a perception.

The Bill is welcome. To be fair, the last Government did attempt to tackle the issue but for one reason or another it ran into a wall somewhere along the way. This Government will not be so hesitant in adopting it and the Labour Party supports it. We look forward to early cost savings and better services for patients.