BGMA leader plans push for more generic prescribing

pharmafile | May 21, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing generics 

The new leader for the UK generics industry has promised to step up its bid to see more off-patent drugs used in the NHS.

Generics are vital for an affordable health service and play a role in boosting innovation, according to the newly appointed chairman of the British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) Kim Innes.

Ms Innes said: "Pharmacy depends on us, millions of patients depend on us, the NHS depends on the cost-effective treatments we make accessible, and our industry drives medical advances by keeping the innovator companies looking for new medicines to develop and patent for the years that return their investment."

The new chairman has promised to campaign to make both politicians and the pharmaceutical industry aware that generic drugs provide "a solution and not a problem".

Ms Innes has worked in the generics industry since 1991, and became director of Teva's UK generics business in 2006. In her new additional role, she said the BGMA was an already effective leader for the industry but the contribution generics make to sustainable healthcare must be better heard.

The Association also plans to tackle the growing issue of biosimilars – generic alternatives to biotech drugs. Some manufacturers of original biotechnologies have warned that any copycat versions will be dangerous due the variable and live nature of the drugs – a claim the BMGA firmly believes is unfounded.

But there may be less work for the BMGA when it comes to more traditional drugs. The UK already uses a high proportion of generics, with more than 83% of NHS prescription items currently written generically.

Primary Care Trusts also now set GPs rising targets for the percentage of generic medicines they use in areas of high volume prescribing such as statins or sartans.

Last year sales of Pfizer's flagship statin brand Lipitor (atorvostatin) dropped by more than £50 million in the UK as a result of PCT efforts to cut costs and encourage more use of simvastatin, a cheaper off-patent product.

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