DustyKat
Super Moderator
- Joined
- May 8, 2010
- Messages
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I have yet to see a struggling community pharmacy in Australia but perhaps I live in a closet? 
Prescription drugs to be cheaper as government claws back chemist profits
PATIENTS will save hundreds of dollars a year on the cost of prescription medicines as the government speeds up its clawback of the massive profits chemists make on generic drugs.
The measure in yesterday's economic statement will also save taxpayers $830 million over three years as it slashes the cost of the medicines subsidy scheme.
However, the measure has upset pharmacists and major pharmaceutical companies whose profits will reduce.
As News Corporation Australia has revealed chemists are being paid 80 per cent more than the market price for hundreds of generic medicines under the nation's medicine subsidy scheme. Pharmacists pay just $9 for a pack of the nation's biggest selling drug atorvastatin, sometimes they receive it for free, but they are being paid over $50 by the taxpayer to dispense it to a consumer.
This not only pushed up the price of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by billions of dollars a year but it also meant general patients were paying much more for off patent medicines than patients in New Zealand, the UK and the United States.
Under a price disclosure policy introduced by Tony Abbott in 2006 and already accelerated once by Labor, the government has been gradually clawing back these massive profits and cutting the cost of medicines to consumers. Just this week the price of almost 500 medicines fell by up to $15 saving consumers up to $120 a year. Currently this highly bureaucratic price disclosure process takes at least 18 months to deliver savings to consumers and the government. In yesterday's economic statement the government announced it would speed up the process so it now takes place over just 12 months.
This means the prices of off-patent medicines will drop sooner, and more often.
The full savings for patients as a result of this can only been determined when each price disclosure cycle is complete. This week's price cuts saved patients about $20 million a year. Consumers Health Forum president Carol Bennett said the measure meant less profit for pharmacists and more money for new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
"It is time consumers benefited from lower price drugs, not providers," she said.
Melbourne University Health economist Professor Philip Clarke welcomed the move but said even with the new faster timeline Australian prices would be lagging the world.
"In the United Kingdom they have a three month price disclosure cycle, three times faster than Australia's," he said.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Kos Sclavos said the change would make the already difficult economic environment for community pharmacy even more difficult. Last time price disclosure was sped up the Guild won $277 million compensation from the government. Medicines Australia chief Brenadan Shaw said there had been a "breathtaking lack of consultation" with the medicines industry over the measure.
"What this means now is that the issue is whether these savings are spent getting new medicines on the scheme to patients," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...ts/story-fneuz9ev-1226690436025#ixzz2asELD967
Dusty.
Prescription drugs to be cheaper as government claws back chemist profits
PATIENTS will save hundreds of dollars a year on the cost of prescription medicines as the government speeds up its clawback of the massive profits chemists make on generic drugs.
The measure in yesterday's economic statement will also save taxpayers $830 million over three years as it slashes the cost of the medicines subsidy scheme.
However, the measure has upset pharmacists and major pharmaceutical companies whose profits will reduce.
As News Corporation Australia has revealed chemists are being paid 80 per cent more than the market price for hundreds of generic medicines under the nation's medicine subsidy scheme. Pharmacists pay just $9 for a pack of the nation's biggest selling drug atorvastatin, sometimes they receive it for free, but they are being paid over $50 by the taxpayer to dispense it to a consumer.
This not only pushed up the price of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme by billions of dollars a year but it also meant general patients were paying much more for off patent medicines than patients in New Zealand, the UK and the United States.
Under a price disclosure policy introduced by Tony Abbott in 2006 and already accelerated once by Labor, the government has been gradually clawing back these massive profits and cutting the cost of medicines to consumers. Just this week the price of almost 500 medicines fell by up to $15 saving consumers up to $120 a year. Currently this highly bureaucratic price disclosure process takes at least 18 months to deliver savings to consumers and the government. In yesterday's economic statement the government announced it would speed up the process so it now takes place over just 12 months.
This means the prices of off-patent medicines will drop sooner, and more often.
The full savings for patients as a result of this can only been determined when each price disclosure cycle is complete. This week's price cuts saved patients about $20 million a year. Consumers Health Forum president Carol Bennett said the measure meant less profit for pharmacists and more money for new medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
"It is time consumers benefited from lower price drugs, not providers," she said.
Melbourne University Health economist Professor Philip Clarke welcomed the move but said even with the new faster timeline Australian prices would be lagging the world.
"In the United Kingdom they have a three month price disclosure cycle, three times faster than Australia's," he said.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Kos Sclavos said the change would make the already difficult economic environment for community pharmacy even more difficult. Last time price disclosure was sped up the Guild won $277 million compensation from the government. Medicines Australia chief Brenadan Shaw said there had been a "breathtaking lack of consultation" with the medicines industry over the measure.
"What this means now is that the issue is whether these savings are spent getting new medicines on the scheme to patients," he said.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...ts/story-fneuz9ev-1226690436025#ixzz2asELD967
Dusty.
