Pharmacy Drug Price reductions..

nesf

I'm surprised there wasn't a thread already:

The full list is available here: http://www.ipha.ie/wide/check-the-list.aspx


Doesn't really make any difference to me, my drugs come to just over 400 euro a month or thereabouts so DPS threshold breached even with any price cuts. Amusingly, while almost every drug I've previously been on is on the list (with one or two exceptions) none of my current prescription is on the list! Doesn't effect me in what I pay out every month so am not bothered by it but it does bemuse me.

Good news for mental illness sufferers, many common drugs like Prozac, Effexor, Cipramil, Risperdal etc have had their prices reduced. Also some brand name antibiotics (Klacid, Augmentin, Augmentin Duo) have also seen price cuts, which will be good news for a lot of people this year I'd say.

Hopefully GPs will pay attention to the cuts when making prescription decisions etc but I know a lot of the GPs on here don't need to be told this!

Edit: After a quick glance, amusingly many of the drugs listed are in generic form already. Ah well, given GPs tendency to prescribe brand names instead of generics a lot of the time any reduction in price level will be good a thing.

angeldelight

Just a warning - apparently one drug company has said a lot of their products mentioned on the list are there incorrectly so there may be a revised list over the next day or so

liam84

nesf wrote: »

I'm surprised there wasn't a thread already:

The full list is available here: http://www.ipha.ie/wide/check-the-list.aspx


Doesn't really make any difference to me, my drugs come to just over 400 euro a month or thereabouts so DPS threshold breached even with any price cuts. Amusingly, while almost every drug I've previously been on is on the list (with one or two exceptions) none of my current prescription is on the list! Doesn't effect me in what I pay out every month so am not bothered by it but it does bemuse me.

Good news for mental illness sufferers, many common drugs like Prozac, Effexor, Cipramil, Risperdal etc have had their prices reduced. Also some brand name antibiotics (Klacid, Augmentin, Augmentin Duo) have also seen price cuts, which will be good news for a lot of people this year I'd say.

Hopefully GPs will pay attention to the cuts when making prescription decisions etc but I know a lot of the GPs on here don't need to be told this!

Edit: After a quick glance, amusingly many of the drugs listed are in generic form already. Ah well, given GPs tendency to prescribe brand names instead of generics a lot of the time any reduction in price level will be good a thing.

Thing is that the listed brand drugs are now cheaper than their generic ones cos the generic manufacturers refused to drop their prices for Harney.

anotherlostie

As I said on another thread the price listed is the manufacturer's price, and not the price that the pharmacy buys them from the wholesaler (who naturally takes a cut for distributing the drugs).

In certain cases now, the generic will be dearer than the branded product - it's worth asking your pharmacist so that you can get your GP to write the script for the branded product if it is now cheaper.

nesf

anotherlostie wrote: »

As I said on another thread the price listed is the manufacturer's price, and not the price that the pharmacy buys them from the wholesaler (who naturally takes a cut for distributing the drugs).

In certain cases now, the generic will be dearer than the branded product - it's worth asking your pharmacist so that you can get your GP to write the script for the branded product if it is now cheaper.

If a prescription is for the generic form of the drug can't a pharmacist dispense any form of that drug including branded versions?

Also, there'll be a lot of public pressure on wholesalers to pass this reduction on.

anotherlostie

nesf wrote: »

If a prescription is for the generic form of the drug can't a pharmacist dispense any form of that drug including branded versions?

Also, there'll be a lot of public pressure on wholesalers to pass this reduction on.

Yes, but a lot of computerised systems are set up to write a specific generic, e.g. Salomol, rather than Ventolin.

The wholesalers will now take their cut on the reduced price, so they will be affected by this too. The manufacturing cost price has to have this mark up added to it to make the price the pharmacy buys at but that site suggests otherwise.

locum-motion

nesf wrote: »

...Edit: After a quick glance, amusingly many of the drugs listed are in generic form already. Ah well, given GPs tendency to prescribe brand names instead of generics a lot of the time any reduction in price level will be good a thing.

The drugs whose prices were reduced are non-patent protected proprietary medicines.
What this means is that they're the older drugs, whose patents have expired already and therefore there are generic versions available.

nesf

locum-motion wrote: »

The drugs whose prices were reduced are non-patent protected proprietary medicines.
What this means is that they're the older drugs, whose patents have expired already and therefore there are generic versions available.

Still a good thing given how many prescriptions for Augmentin Duo are handed out etc.