Sir, – Why is the Minister for Health reluctant to tackle the pharmaceutical firms over the exorbitant price of drugs, and instead picking on the helpless who have no means to fight back?
I buy my own blood pressure medication (losartan potassium) in Belfast for €4 for a month’s supply. The same medication is €43 in Dublin. Both are non-branded, generic medicines.
How can this be? One, pharmaceutical firms are happy to get a far higher price in the Republic compared to the UK; two, most patients don’t care as they are either on a medical card or feel that this is the actual price of this medication for this serious condition; and three, the Government does not care because it is not its money anyway.
Receipts available on request, Minister. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Some time ago I was prescribed glucosamine by my doctor. A month’s supply cost me €50 at the local pharmacy. I later spotted the same drug on sale in a local supermarket for the princely sum of €4 for a month’s supply.
My doctor agreed with me that they were both the same drug so I continued to buy the supermarket’s supply at a saving of €46 a month.
Rather than tackle the overpricing issue with the pharmacies, the HSE has gone against medical opinion and has now decided that the glucosamine has no benefits.
So the next time my doctor gives me a prescription, should I first check with the HSE to determine if the drug is of any benefit? Then, when I get the thumbs-up from the HSE, should I then check with my local shop to see if it’s in stock before finally going to the pharmacy! – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Last year a month’s supply of the leading brand of cholesterol control drug (generic drug name atorvastatin) cost €60. The patent has since run out and generic versions became available around May this year. My pharmacy said the new price would be €57 per month, not much of a reduction.
When a leading pharmacy chain changed its method of calculating drug costs, I phoned and was told a month’s supply would be around €35. Another pharmacy could supply a generic for just over €30 per month.
So far so good. In June I was in Spain. A local pharmacy sold atorvastatin over the counter. A 28-day package was €9.81 for either the original brand or a generic!
So, who is getting the extra €20 plus per month in Ireland? The drug companies? The distributors? The pharmacists? And who is paying for this? The private patient out of his pocket? Is it partly paid for by the taxpayer under the drug payment scheme, or 100 per cent by the taxpayer under the medical card scheme? Will automatic generic substitution take account of the huge reductions that must be possible by distributing and selling at prices similar to Spain? I have my doubts. I can only speak about atorvastatin, but I imagine there are similar stories about a host of other drugs.
Dr Reilly, please take note, then take action! – Yours, etc,