Thursday, February 23, 2012

Australia "pays too much for generics" - PharmaTimes

Lynne Taylor

Australia "pays too much for generics"

If Australia had paid English prices for the generic cholesterol-lowerer simvastatin during May 2010-October 2011, its Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) spending could have been reduced from A$150 million to just A$20 million, says a leading health economist.

Australia's "price disclosure" policy - agreed as part of the government/research-based industry Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to reduce the prices of older PBS-listed drugs by requiring drugmakers to reveal to the government the actual price at which they sell their products to pharmacies - does reduce future prices, according to Professor Philip Clarke of the University of Melbourne, writing this week in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Posted via email from Jack's posterous

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