Farmaindustria slams govt on discrimination

The Spanish drug industry association Farmaindustria has said that sections of the government are failing to defend branded drug products. Humberto Arnes, director general of the organization, said there was a lack of coherence in government policy with the administration supporting branded pharmaceuticals in theory, but discriminating against them in practice.

He added that the Drug Law (LdM) had established a system of reference prices that clearly discriminated against branded drug products and that imposed the prescribing of generic medicines.

The problem with this, Mr Arnes argued, is that, when market forces come into play, the price differential between the branded drug and the generic copy was a matter of "small change." Emili Esteve, technical director of Farmaindustria, noted that drugmakers realized the prestige and emotional commitment attached by consumers to branded drugs.