Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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197. To ask the Minister for Health the measures introduced to promote the increased use of generic medicines; the practical implication of same; the amount saved to date; the estimated savings which would be realised by extending this scheme to the next ten most common medicines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25634/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The Government has introduced a series of reforms in recent years to reduce the prices of drugs and medicines which are paid for by the HSE. One of those key reforms has been the introduction of generic drug substitution and reference pricing as provided for by The Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013.

The Act permits pharmacists to substitute medicines prescribed, provided that they have been designated as safely interchangeable by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA). Generic substitution is being introduced incrementally, with the HPRA prioritising those medicines which will achieve the greatest saving for patients and the State. This process will continue until all medicinal products on the reimbursable list have been assessed.

The Act also allows the HSE to set a reference price for groups of interchangeable medicines. Reference pricing involves the setting of a common reimbursement price, or reference price, for a group of interchangeable medicines. It means that one reference price is set for each group or list of interchangeable medicines, and this is the maximum price that the HSE will reimburse to pharmacies for all medicines in the group, regardless of the individual medicine’s prices. By the end of January 2015 the HSE had set reference prices for 110 interchangeable groups across 37 different medicines / combinations. Reference pricing has generated over €47 million in savings in 2014 and is expected to deliver a further €25 million in 2015. Reference prices will ensure that generic prices in Ireland will fall towards European norms.

Another measure to promote the use of generic medicines is the work being undertaken by the HSE's Medicines Management Programme. The programme actively engages with General Practitioners to reinforce the message around safe, effective and cost-effective prescribing including generic prescribing.

As part of our wider Troika commitments a target for generic penetration of the off-patent market by volume was set at 70% by the end of 2016. By end Q1 2015 generics accounted for over 70%, thus we have already met the 2016 target.