Mexico: Generics "Will Cut Drug Prices 150%"

Mexico's General Health Council is to issue a list of newly-availablegeneric drugs, initially numbering 80, which will reduce drug prices by as much as 150%, says Council director Octavio Rivero Serrano.

The generics' producers will be required to guarantee product quality, and sanctions will be applied against pharmacies which "abuse" the drugs' brand names; this will also apply to manufacturers using modified production formulae, he said.

Dr Rivero Serrano said the aim of providing generic drugs at much lower costs requires the elimination of corruption and stricter product control. Among potential problems, he said, would be pharmacies limiting their sales to higher-priced commercial drugs and providing no generics. This would be interpreted as the pharmacy providing an inadequate service to the public, and it could be sanctioned for this. However, he added, "a graver matter" would be if the pharmacy provided the generic under the brand name, and at the brand-name drug's price.