Pharmacy with cross-border price matching to offer national delivery
The pharmacy, Healthwave, that opened in Dundrum, Dublin, last December, has just launched HealthPass, which offers subscribers 50% savings on prescriptions.
Pharmacist and Healthwave chief executive Shane O’Sullivan said that, with HealthPass, their prices were on a par with those offered in pharmacies in the North.
The scheme is modelled on systems in place in pharmacies across the US, and Healthwave will concentrate on generic drugs because they are cheaper.
Pharmacists are now obliged to substitute a prescribed medicine for a generic alternative for those on medical cards.
“Widespread generic substitution is taking place in pharmacies here for all patients but the mark-up on generics is often three and four times the value of the medication in other countries,” said Mr O’Sullivan.
Healthwave, a member of the Irish Pharmacy Union, will charge €4.95 for a 28-day supply of Altorvastatin, the generic cholesterol medication that currently costs €10.42 in the Republic.
We have had an absolutely phenomenal reaction to HealthPass today, please bear with us while we respond to each of you, the Healthwave team.
— healthwave (@healthwaveHQ) January 16, 2014
Mr O’Sullivan graduated from University College Cork in 2008 and intends opening a pharmacy in Cork in the next six months, all going well.
“With our prices we are looking to bring people down below the monthly threshold and off State reimbursement schemes,” he said.
Irish Consumer Association CEO Dermott Jewell urged consumers to check with their doctor first to ensure that a generic drug was suitable for their treatment.
Irish Patients’s Association chairman Stephen McMahon said anything that reduced the cost of drugs to patients while maintaining the high quality of the product had to be welcomed.
“I think we have to wait and see if this development is going to disrupt the community pharmacy sector,” said Mr McMahon.
The IPU, which represents more than 2,000 pharmacies, said the price of medicines in pharmacies in Ireland had fallen dramatically in recent times and would continue to fall.
An IPU spokesman said pharmacists were exploring new business and pricing models and that Healthwave was further evidence of the highly competitive Irish pharmacy market.
“This up-front membership fee model has also recently been seen in a couple of GP and dental practices,” said the spokesman. “It remains to be seen whether the Healthwave model will be successful.”
