NHS generic drive saves
pharmafile | May 14, 2009 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â NHSÂ
The NHS saved £394 million last year by prescribing cheaper generic medicines, according to an academic study.
The Department of Medicines Management at Keele University said PCTs in England managed the saving by making more consistent use of generics.
This was particularly true in common conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and gastric problems.
The largest overall saving – £278 million – was made on statins, a group of medicines that includes Pfizer's Lipitor and AstraZeneca's Crestor.
The drug class was one of four that Parliament's spending watchdog identified two years ago as offering the biggest savings opportunities.
Savings made in 2008 were nearly double the £200 million a year the National Audit Office predicted PCTs could save, after it found large variations in prescribing for the same conditions between PCTs.
In the second quarter of 2006-07, the proportion of statins prescribed generically varied from 28% to 86% across England.
Savings could be achieved without compromising patient care, it said then.
"These findings demonstrate the extent to which GPs choosing to prescribe cheaper but just as clinically effective generic medicines can lead to real savings for the NHS," said Michael Whitehouse, NAO assistant auditor general, this week.
"This is all the more important as the NHS' spending on medicines continues to rise year on year, as the UK population ages and more and better treatments become available."
The NAO insisted in 2007 that small changes in prescribing behaviour could lead to substantial savings.
It reported that GPs found it hard to assimilate all the information they received on prescribing and were thus influenced by both the NHS and the pharma industry.
At the time the NAO also launched a toolkit to help NHS prescribing advisers communicate more effectively with GPs.
The other drugs groups the NAO singled out as areas for savings were rennin-angiotensin drugs, proton prump inhibitors and clopidogrel.
According to Keele, the North West Strategic Health Authority saved the most money in 2008: more than £70 million.
Norfolk achieved the largest saving among PCTs, totalling £7.8 million.
Other top performing PCTs included North Yorkshire and York (£5.3 million saving), Nottinghamshire County Teaching (£4 million) and North East Essex (£3.6 million).
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