Exorbitant cost of medicines has to be met head on – Crowe

Speaking in Leinster House before the Oireachtas Health Committee begins its debate on the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Bill 2012, Dublin South West representative Seán Crowe TD described the Bill, which facilitates the use of generic medicines, as a welcome step forward but much more needs to be done to tackle this long drawn out scandal.

He also described as ‘farcical’ the decision to rule out of order key amendments that Sinn Féin had submitted to exempt epileptic drugs from the new legislation.

Deputy Seán Crowe said;

“Any fool could tell you that the Health Services Executive and individual customers are being ripped off with the price of medicines in this State.

“Recent revelations have shown the HSE paying up to 24 times more than the NHS in the North or Britain for the same generic medicines.At the same time the HSE is reimbursing pharmacists for generic drugs at inflated prices, even though it is now reported that pharmacists are receiving discounts of up to 90% from drug manufacturers.

“The Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Bill is to be welcomed and is a long overdue step forward in that it facilitates the greater use of generic medicines. if the excessive price of generics themselves is not tackled then the savings to the HSE and to patients that actually use the drugs will be minimal. Much more needs to be done and Health Minister James Reilly must look again at the current agreements with the pharmaceutical manufacturers who are clearly profiteering massively in the Irish market.

“Many of these same drugs that taxpayers are paying exorbitant rates for, are actually manufactured in this state. We assist them with start up costs and with factories or premises supplied by the state. We supply them with highly skilled graduates and staff, allow them favourable tax conditions where massive profits can be made and transferred with very little losses to their margins.

“They receive massive state supports but give the very minimum in return. This has to change and the current legislation will give the Oireachtas an opportunity to review and uncover some of these ‘sweetheart’ deals.

“The negatives around this Bill is that Committee Stage has been reduced to farce by the ruling out of order of key amendments that Sinn Féin and others tabled, which would exclude drugs for epilepsy from the Bill. This arises out of very serious health concerns raised by people with epilepsy that in the case of anti-seizure drugs there is a danger that the generic substitutes do not match the precision of the original patented drugs.

“These amendments have been ruled out of order by the Oireachtas Bills Office on the grounds that they would cost the State money and thus can only be moved by a Minister. I dispute this but and will be urging Minister of State for Health Alex White to take heed of the concerns of people with epilepsy and to adopt these progressive amendments himself.”