Sir, – I refer to an article by Owen McKeon, the chairman of Medicines for Ireland, which represents the manufacturers of generic medicines ("The Department of Health continues to ignore cost-effective medicines", Opinion & Analysis, February 25th).
The originator industry – the people who discover, make and deliver branded, prescription medicines to patients – has a deal with the State on pricing and supply. Mr McKeon suggests in his article that the deal is not delivering savings. He argues, too, that it is anti-competitive. On both counts, he is wrong.
The State has saved more than €100 million on the drugs bill through biosimilars, or “copycat” versions of complex biologic medicines.
The saving is part of our deal with the State that allows for an immediate 30 per cent price drop on the originator biologic medicine when a biosimilar becomes available.
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This was projected to deliver €104 million savings over the lifetime of the deal. The saving is well ahead of target, already amounting to €109 million, with a full year left to run.
When a medicine goes off patent, it is up to manufacturers, whether generics or originators, to freely compete on the market with their own drugs. There is no “blocker”, as Mr McKeon suggests. We fully support competition in the biologics market as a means of delivering value which can be reinvested into the use of innovative treatments.
The bigger issue, though, is how we tackle delays accessing new innovative medicines used to treat increasingly complex diseases. The delay is not due to the price of medicines – all countries in western Europe assess, negotiate and agree prices similar to our own. The problem is that funding is neither predictable or adequate. Industry and policymakers must work together to fix what is clearly broken.
Our goal is that Ireland be in the top quartile of the EU28 for speed of access to new medicines. Now, we are among the slowest to adopt medical innovation.
We must do better. – Yours, etc,
BERNARD MALLEE,
Irish Pharmaceutical
Healthcare Association,
Dublin 2 .