Researchers at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) have analysed the generic medicines policy, in particular pricing and reimbursement systems and incentives for doctors to prescribe, for pharmacists to administer, and patients to use and demand generics, in selected EU countries.
The report demonstrates that if, for example, only the ten most prescribed drugs were replaced by generic equivalents, this would reduce public expenditure on pharmaceuticals by 27-48% in many countries. It urges the creation of a coherent EU generic medicines policy to boost development of a competitive European generics industry, currently obstructed due to delays in national pricing and reimbursement approvals.
The specific policy recommendations for the EU to strengthen its generic medicines markets, endorsed in the analysis, include free pricing policy encouraging price competition, information on price differences to doctors and patients, boosting confidence in generic drugs and incentives both for doctors to prescribe and patients to ask for them.
