British pharmacies may be given greater dispensing rights
Wednesday January 13, 2010
New proposed legislation from the England Department of Health has applied for British pharmacists and similar medicinal dispensers to be able to fulfil any prescriptions for a branded medicine by dispensing an equivalent generic medicine. The proposed changes are designed to reduce health costs by allowing for generic substitution from several types of medications.
This is system is already in operation in Australia, whereas in England pharmacists are restricted to only dispensing exactly what is outlined on a prescription. This means that no generic versions of the same medications are able to be substituted without the prior consent of the prescriber.
It is suggested that by introducing this legislation the amount spent on branded medications will drop by five per cent a year, an amount that currently sits at nine billion pounds.
The proposed legislation suggests that a list should be compiled for medications that are able to be substituted for their generic counterparts. The list would contain medications of antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and statins including the following:
- commonly prescribed drugs
- those often prescribed as branded products
- medications that would provide the highest financial savings
- medications that have just been released off patent
Of course it was noted that the ultimate decision would lie with the prescriber over what substitutions would be allowed depending on the patient-in-question medical requirements. It was proposed that an opt-in system would need to be established whereby a prescriber would indicate on the script whether a generic substitution would be acceptable or not.
