Cuts cuts and more cuts - death by a thousand cuts
Spanish govt moves to eradicate pharmacy debt
World News | September 04, 2013
The Spanish government has announced a new payment plan aimed at
eradicating, by the end of the year, pharmacies’ debts with drug
wholesalers dating back to 2011.
The plan will particularly target pharmacies in the regions which have
been worst-affected by the payment delays, including Catalonia, Valencia
and the Balearic Islands, and where pharmacies had been warning the
government that they would have to close down if a payment plan was not
worked out. It is also aimed at eliminating shortages of essential
drugs, which have been particularly critical for chronic diseases,
according to local reports.
Commenting on the announcement, analysts at IHS Global Insight point
out that the delays in payments to local pharmacies in the regions have
in turn affected the pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers which
supply the country’s public healthcare system.
Also, the repayment plan “comes alongside the government working on
establishing regulations for stable prices of drugs in the country that
will make the national market more profitable for pharma companies
operating in Spain,” they add.
However, a recent report from Business Monitor International (BMI)
forecasts that the Spanish pharmaceuticals market will fall 10.4% this
year in local currency terms, from 18.34 billion euros in 2012 to 16.44
billion euros. In US dollars, this is a fall of 6.2% from $23.30 billion
to $21.86 billion, says the report, which also forecasts that total
healthcare spending in Spain will fall by 0.7% from 99.51 billion euros
in 2012 to 98.83 billion euros for the whole of 2013.
“The deterioration of the Spanish economy and the government’s
implementation of increasingly aggressive fiscal austerity policies that
focus on cost-containment in the healthcare sector will lead to yearly
declines in pharmaceutical spending, at least till 2017,” BMI forecasts.
“Our view is supported by the success of previous government measures,
including the steep decline in state spending on medicines and the drop
in average expenditure per prescription, following the implementation of
Royal Decree Laws 4 and 8/2010, Royal Decree Law 9/2011 and Royal
Decree Law 16/2012,” the report adds.
• Royal Decree Law 4/2010 lowered the reference prices of generics
which had been on the market for more than 10 years, while 8/2010
reduced the prices paid by the government for medicines and medical
devices, Law 9/2011 made generic prescribing mandatory and Law 16/2012
introduced mandatory drug co-payments for all patients, including
retirees.
Links
www.globalinsight.comwww.businessmonitor.com
(Thanks to yesterday's Pharma Times, http://www.pharmatimes.com/Article/13-09-04/Spanish_govt_moves_to_eradicate_pharmacy_debt.aspx)
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