Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 205: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the annual cost to the health services of the five most prescribed drugs including their individual annual cost; her plans to reduce such costs; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21405/09]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I am advised by the Health Service Executive (HSE) that the five products/product categories of highest cost under the GMS scheme in 2008 are as follows:

Atorvastatin €62.2 m Clinical Nutritional Products €41.2 m Salmeterol and other drugs for obstructive airway diseases €26.9 m Esomeprazole €25.3 m Omeprazole €24.8 m

Public expenditure on prescribed drugs was €2.26 billion in 2008, consisting of €1.96 billion on drugs dispensed in the community and €300 million on drugs provided in hospitals. A number of initiatives have been implemented to obtain greater value for money from this area of expenditure and to control spending.

Agreements were concluded by the HSE with the proprietary and generic manufacturers, the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association and the Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Ireland, in June and September 2006 respectively. Over the period of the agreements, which run to 2010, the HSE estimates savings of the order of €260 million through off-patent price cuts of 35% for drugs with substitutable alternatives in two stages, 20% in March 2007 and a further 15% in January 2009.

Other measures initiated by the HSE to improve value for money in the drugs schemes include reducing wastage and inappropriate prescribing of oral nutritional products, moving selected products to the High Tech Drugs Scheme where appropriate (products supplied under this scheme do not incur a retail mark-up) and the planned establishment of joint formularies for drugs and non-drug items for community and hospital settings.

The report on Economies in Drug Usage in the Irish Healthcare Sector, submitted to me in December 2008 by a group chaired by Dr Michael Barry of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, made a number of recommendations in regard to efficiencies in the prescribing and reimbursement status of certain drugs and medicines, including a recommendation that generic prescribing by GPs should be encouraged and facilitated. Arising from this report, I established an implementation group, chaired by Dr Barry, and comprising of representatives of my Department, the HSE and the IMO, to identify and oversee the implementation of specific measures that would deliver more cost effective prescribing by GPs, greater use of generic preparations and quality prescribing indicators. The work of the group is ongoing.

I am firmly of the view that the costs of pharmacy services under the GMS and community drugs schemes are not sustainable, a view that is reinforced by the current budgetary challenges. It is clear that significant savings must be made for taxpayers, and I have instructed my Department to pursue this in consultation with the HSE.