Spain hopes to save 2.4 billion euros by ordering doctors to Rx generics

As part of moves to reduce the nation’s budget deficit, Spain’s socialist government has passed legislation requiring doctors and pharmacies to prescribe generic drugs rather than the more expensive brand names sold by pharmaceutical companies, with the aim of generating savings of 2.4 billion euros ($3.46 billion) a year.

Commenting on the move, Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero said the law would help Spain continue to lower the state's drug bill, which has already fallen 10% this year, due in part to measures introduced to increase the use of generic products, as well as swinging drug price cuts of as much as 23% introduced last year that were expected to result in savings of 1.3 billion euros (The Pharma Letter May 17, 2010).

According to a report in the UK’s Guardian, Spanish doctors will now have to write only the name of the active ingredients of the medicine they are prescribing for their patients, as well as the dose and format. The drugs are paid for partly by the state and partly by patients. Pharmacies will be obliged to provide the cheapest available versions of drugs, which will frequently mean not the better-known brand names sold by the big drugs firms.