SPAIN'S PHARMA SPEND EXCEEDS 600 BILL PESETAS

Spain's public spending on pharmaceutical reimbursement in 1993 amounted to 609.4 billion pesetas ($4.4 billion), an increase of 7.85% on spending in 1992, and the equivalent of 1.11% of Spain's Gross Domestic Product. It also represents 19% of health care spending through social security. This is the highest spending level among western countries, according to Jose Luis Temes, director general of Insalud, and represents a major threat to the government's plans to cut the country's public deficit.

The total expenditure on pharmaceuticals is believed to have exceeded the collective budgets of eight ministries. However, the Spanish Health Economics Office points out that the 7.85% increase is smaller than the 14.9% rise in 1992, and that the 1993 growth in spending was over 2 points lower than the 10% target set by the health authorities for 1993. The Health Economics Office had estimated an increase in 1993 of 7.5%, it added. The slowed growth is a result of the controls brought in during 1993 such as the 3% reduction in Value Added Tax, and the exclusion from reimbursement of certain drug products, which resulted in a 2.5% decline in the number of prescriptions during the year.

The HEO is forecasting an increase in 1994 of 8%, taking into account the expected impact of the 3% reduction in drug prices, which was introduced at the beginning of the year (Marketletters passim). However, the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumption has indicated that it expects to see a reduction of 12% in this area in 1994.