New Year Brings Discounts for Pharmaceuticals
As more generic pharmaceuticals are brought onto the market, around 30 new drugs will be given government-subsidized discounts, at the beginning of 2012, ranging from 50 to 100 percent.
The new discounted drugs comprise prescription medicines for treatment of infertility, rheumatoid arthritis, to schizophrenia, and others, the Ministry of Social Affairs said in a statement.
A recent legislative amendment should benefit consumers, who now are guaranteed that pharmacies will carry the two most affordable generic drugs containing a given active ingredient.
The key part of the amendment is that it requires wholesalers to give preference to drugs on which the government and the manufacturer have a price agreement.
Doctors are required to write prescriptions based on an active ingredient and the pharmacist is then required to recommend, as a first option, the cheapest drug. But before the July 29 amendment, there was no guarantee that the pharmacy would necessarily stock the most economical medicines.
Ott Tammik