Branded Pharma delivers half-year savings of 68.5 million euros for Ireland’s state medicines bill

The price of many well known branded medicines that no longer have patent protection are set to reduce further as a result of the 2012 supply agreement between the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) and the government of Ireland.

The agreement has already led to savings of 68.5 million euros ($92.4 million) to the State in the first six months of this year as a result of two price reductions implemented on November 1, 2012 and January 1, 2013, as well as a realignment of patent protected products.

Speaking on November 1, the first anniversary of the supply agreement, IPHA chief executive Anne Nolan said: "Today the prices of many well known medicines supplied to the Irish health services will fall. These ongoing price cuts, coupled with a series of previous reductions, have resulted in the cost to the State per item reducing by nearly 30% between 2008 and 2013. This has led to significant savings across all the community drug schemes in the region of 554 million euros."