Spain's Farmaindustria expresses concern about regional hospital fulfilment order

Spain's drug industry body Farmaindustria says it has been worried about the violation of the right to prescription freedom that can result from the order that the Government of Aragon put out at end-October that establishes the creation of a unique pharmacotherapeutic guide and of forced fulfilment for all hospitals.

Jose Ramon Luis-Yague, a director of Farmaindustria, has explained that 'the law grants competitions to the autonomies in the rational use of medicines, but these measures in no way can change the rules of the market nor limit patients' access to drugs. The mechanism to decide what drugs finance corresponds to the Ministry of Health." In its opinion, the order dictated by Aragon establishes that there will be a unique catalog of prescriptions for all hospitals and that breaks the rules of the game. It is contrary to prescribing freedom, said Farmaindustria.

The management of Farmaindustria recently had a meeting with the press in Cordova, when concern was expressed about the declarations of the Madrilenian advisor of Health, Juan Jose Guemes, who only days ago raised the subject of modifying the system of reference prices, at the moment based on maximum prices for active principles, to one based on therapeutic groups:

"It is an erroneous proposal from the health, technical and economic point of view. He would prevent the development of new drugs and he would not stop costs," explained the chief of Farmaindustria's directorate, Humberto Harness, who anticipates meeting with Mr Guemes in the next days.