Australian Drug Brand Substitution Announced

As the Marketletter was going to press, Australia's Health Minister Carmen Lawrence announced that changes to the National Health Act, effective December 1, will permit a pharmacist to substitute a doctor's prescription with a different brand of a medicine, without informing the doctor.

Commenting on the situation, Kerry Bell, chief executive of the Australian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, said "this change needs to be viewed in context, and it is misleading to suggest that consumers are in for a windfall." Only a limited range of medicines (about 120 of the more than 1,600 listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme) are involved in the substitution plan, he said, and "savings to consumers will amount to an average of about A$1 ($0.74) for a month's supply of life-saving medicine."

Mr Bell noted that "the decision to prescribe a pharmaceutical product is not an easy one, as the doctor must take into account the many different clinical, environmental, social and financial needs of the patient before choosing the most appropriate medicine." Moreover, he pointed out, "consumers have always had a say in the medicines prescribed, and this legislation doesn't change the fact that the choice of medicines should be mutually agreed to by the doctor and the patient at the time of consultation, and not simply a decision based on price alone."