Better German Drug Supply "At Less Cost"

Despite savings of some 2.7 billion Deutschemarks ($1.7 billion) in 1993, the supply of drugs in germany could be improved at lower cost, according to a study carried out for the interior health funds by Joerg Remien, a Munich University pharmacologist.

He compared prescriptions issued to 25,000 fund members in third-quarter 1992 with those in the same quarter of 1993. Germany's Health Structure Law, requiring doctors to prescribe economically, came into force at the start of 1993. With 1993 savings of 2.7 billion marks across Germany as a whole, the drug supply to the population did not deteriorate, and actually improved in some areas.

There was scarcely a single case in which a costly, effective drug had been replaced by a cheap, old or ineffective product, and drug supply was found to have improved for three reasons. First was a flattening-out of of the earlier hump in drug oversupply; the second was a trend to prescribing products with one active agent rather than combinations; and third, controversial drugs with a problematic use/ risk ratio were less frequently prescribed.