Spain's Pharma Deficit Eats Savings

The exclusion of 1,658 medicines from reimbursement in 1994 in Spain brought about a saving to the country's social security of 22.3 billion pesetas ($173.4 million). However, this saving has been totally absorbed by the social security pharmaceutical deficit, which exceeded by around 20.3 billion pesetas the initial budget of 217.6 billion pesetas for 1994.

Savings on pharmaceutical spending were also derived from the agreement between the country's pharmaceutical companies and the government to a 3% price reduction for medicines. This brought in a saving of around 47.4 billion pesetas. The measure did not prevent the pharmaceutical industry from growing 4.7% last year, with turnover of around 534.9 billion pesetas ($4.1 billion), 394.4 billion pesetas of which was financed by social security.

The second means of saving was directly through pharmacies, which made discounts of between 1.3% and 2%, bringing in a saving of 5.1 billion pesetas. In real terms the saving was 27.1 billion pesetas, with a pharmaceutical deficit of 237.8 billion pesetas, reports the Spanish financial daily newspapers Cinco Dias.