E-drug: Pharm Ind in Sweden lobbies against PI (2)
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Dear friends,
It is interesting to note that the pharmaceutical Industry apparently
does not really learn from history. The same is happening now in
Sweden than has happened over the last 15 years in different
European countries already. This is, as far as I can see, due to the
fact that their commercial departments are organised by country.
Anyway a few extra remarks to complete Staffans' message.
Dispensing parallel imported medicines is now a reality in most
European countries. They can, however, only be dispensed if they
have a national registration. For parallel drugs this approval
procedure is rather simple. Most health care authorities now start
relying on parallel imported and generic drugs to control medication
costs.
Specifying the companies' name on a prescription will not be useful
if parallel dispensing has to be prevented: the company will usually
be the same for the national brand and parallel imported brand. My
GPs note 'NL' on a prescription if they really want the Dutch
speciality dispensed. But sometimes there is a (confusing) different
brand name and then simple substitution officially is not possible
unless the GP prescribes by generic name. So, the Dutch
government now stimulates all physicians to prescribe by generic
name. This enables both parallel and generic substitution.
Foppe