British drugmakers are launching a legal challenge to moves by the state-run National Health Service to switch large numbers of patients onto cheap generic prescription medicines.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) believes such schemes are potentially unsafe and primary care doctors are receiving additional payments to prescribe certain low-cost medicines in contravention of European law.
The industry group said it had started a judicial review and its lawyers had won permission to bring proceedings to court, although a hearing is not expected before the end of the year.
"For some time the ABPI has had serious concerns about a number of initiatives at primary care organization level, especially those that provide incentives for switching large numbers of patients to alternative treatments with the sole aim of reducing costs and with inadequate patient safeguards," it said in a statement.
It argues patients should have to give explicit consent for any switching rather than leaving them to object if they wish to do so.
A Department of Health spokesman said the government would rigorously defend the legal challenge.
More at Reuters
Insider's view: it's usually not a good idea to antagonise your customer!
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