Laws to limit influence of vested interests in drug supply
Mr O’Malley said he has received reports of hospital doctors prescribing very expensive new drugs instead of tried and tested drugs that would be far less expensive.
“There is also strong anecdotal evidence of dominant consultants or hospital doctors prescribing very expensive drugs that are not necessary and some drug companies are having inappropriate influence,” Mr O’Malley said.
Pharmacists must question the wisdom of this from two standpoints: best practice and cost benefits. And hospital pharmacists must play a greater role in ensuring the drugs are chosen on the basis of these yardsticks, Mr O’Malley added.
“As a pharmacist and as a government minister I think it is incumbent on the profession and on the public to demand the best possible service and the best possible value for money,” Mr O’Malley said.
While pharmacists are making valiant attempts to use the best drug for the patient, this is being thwarted by vested interests, the minister told the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland dinner at the weekend.
Pharmacists are the only trained experts on drugs and since the State has spent a lot of money training them it should reap some benefit from their skills, Mr O’Malley said. The minister is now working on ways to give hospital pharmacists a greater say in drug prescription in the new pharmacy bill that is currently being formulated.
However, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) rejected claims that their members had any vested interest in prescribing more
expensive drugs for their patients.
Consultants prescribe drugs that are the most-effective medically and at the same time cost effective, IHCA secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said.
“If it comes to a choice between a branded drug and a generic drug that have equal benefit, a consultant will always prescribe the cheaper generic drug,” Mr Fitzpatrick added.
The IHCA secretary general also
rejected claims that consultants would be inappropriately influenced by drug companies in the drugs they prescribe and said there is no way any of their members would do that in this age of compensation culture.
“But we do have cases where a new more expensive drug can often be more effective medically for a patient than the generic drug and in this case patients don’t want to get the second best,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.
Meanwhile, the Pharmacy Review Group has recommended more pharmacy licences should be issued to increase competition and foreign-owned companies should be allowed to own 8% of businesses in any health board area.
Health Minister Micheál Martin has this report and will bring it to Cabinet shortly. But Mr O’Malley believes it is wrong to allow foreign companies to control this amount of pharmacies in any health board area.
“It will give foreign companies ave huge money a monopoly in an area and young pharmacists will find it difficult to open their own businesses because they will not be able to compete with the money offered by big German, Dutch and British companies,” he Mr O’Malley said.
The minister said he did not believe these chain pharmacy stores could provide the same level of personal service to customers either.
