A PATIENT ADVOCATE group has criticised a more than tenfold increase in the cost of medication for patients suffering from a steroid deficiency. The increase will result in non-GMS patients having to pay up to €266 a year for drugs which had previously cost them less than €50 annually.
The cost of a monthly supply of Hydrocortone tablets has risen from €2 to €22. One GP said the increase could place a serious financial burden on non-GMS patients who needed the tablet to compensate for a natural steroid deficiency.
Patient advocate and chairman of the Irish Patients’ Association, Stephen McMahon, said price increases of “such Celtic Tiger proportions” should be resisted. He argued that the price of a drug should be related to the nominal value of producing it rather than what the market would bear.
When contacted about the increase in the price of Hydrocortone, the HSE said the prices of medicines supplied under the GMS and community drug schemes were set by the HSE in agreement with the manufacturers and that only products with licences for the Irish market could apply for reimbursement status under the schemes.
Hydrocortone had a very low reimbursement price of 89 cent, based on an ex-factory price of 80 cent per pack of 30. This was because the licence holder, Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD), was willing to supply the Irish market at this price. This was significantly less than in other countries such as the UK where the product is currently priced at £48.80 per pack.
According to the HSE, the licence for supplying Hyrdocortone 10mg on the Irish market was transferred from MSD in April 2010, when it sold the product line to Auden Mckenzie. Auden Mckenzie proposed a price increase to €30 per pack, based on the average price of the product in the three other countries: UK, Switzerland and Slovenia. This would have have had budget impact in the region of €1.44 million for the HSE, in addition to cost increases for patients. However, following negotiations, an ex-factory price of €20 per pack was agreed.
Based on a €20 price, plus a wholesale mark-up of 10 per cent, a retail mark-up of 20 per cent and a dispensing fee of €5, the full cost of the product under the Drugs Payment Scheme is now €31.40. The HSE said it appreciated the new deal negotiated with Auden Mckenzie represented “a substantial price increase”, but insisted that it was the best option available.
“If a price increase had not been agreed, Auden Mckenzie were insistent that they would remove the product from the Irish market and, if that had occurred, the HSE and individual patients would have to pay for an even more expensive unlicenced product.”
However, Mr McMahon rejected this argument. “Such increases should be resisted and challenged – the benchmark is not what other countries are paying for it but what Irish patients were paying for the product ,” he said.
