For almost a month now, since April 1, the new procedure for prescribing state reimbursable medicines has been in operation. It requires doctors to indicate the active substance of the medicine in the prescription and not the brand name of the medicine. In a pharmacy, the patient is given the lowest priced medicine from the range of medicines of the same composition. The Ministry of Health estimates that the new prescribing procedure will save Latvian patients approximately 25 million EUR a year.

“It is a significant achievement that Latvia has finally joined Lithuania, Estonia and other European countries, where doctors are already successfully writing the active substance name in the prescriptions of reimbursable medicines, not the brand name of the medicine. This approach avoids the situation that patients overpay for medicines, although lower-priced medicines with the same therapeutic effect and quality as the original medicines are available in pharmacies,” emphasizes Egils Einārs Jurševics, Chairman of the Board of LGMA.

Patients’ savings depend on the amount of medicine needed and their cost. An example is the comparison of the prices of original and generic medicines for the treatment of a 60-year-old patient X. Often, people at this age face chronic heart failure and high blood pressure with regular use of about 3 different medications. By choosing to buy the most expensive original medicine, patient X spends EUR 20.79 per month on these medicines, while a generic medicine of equivalent quality would cost the patient EUR 6.73*. Such triple savings would be a great financial relief, especially for elderly patients taking a wide range of medicines.

Generic medicinal products are much friendlier to the patient’s wallet, allowing patients, especially those who have to take many different medicines on a regular basis, to save significant financial resources. It is also especially important that choosing to use generic medicines often increases the patient’s financial opportunities to buy all the medicines prescribed by the doctor, thus avoiding the quite common situation in Latvia that the patient’s finances allow to buy only a part of the prescribed medicines or in the worst case – none.

Why such a price difference? Once the originator’s patent has ended, it must disclose the exact chemical composition of the originator’s product, on the basis of which other pharmaceutical companies may produce an identical generic product. As several equally effective drug manufacturers appear on the market, the price of these drugs is falling.

Although doctors and pharmacists sometimes have to deal with patients’ concerns about the quality of generic medicinal products, it is important not to rely on false prejudices and to remember that the patient is treated with the active substance and not the packaging, tablet appearance and colour. However, if a patient has any concerns, it is important to see their general practitioner.

More information about the benefits of generic medicinal products can be found on the LGMA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LatvijasPM

* preliminary calculation of the price of the medicines, if the patient has been diagnosed with such diseases, based on the price of the medicines available on the NHS website and the patient’s co-payment for the specific diagnosis

Patient X, 60 years (preliminary calculation of the price of the medicines, if the patient has been diagnosed with such diseases, based on the price of the medicines available on the NHS website and the patient’s co-payment for the specific diagnosis)

 

Diagnosis	Original medicinal product	Generic medicinal product	Patient’s savings
High blood pressure	Perindoprilum/indapamidum/ amlodipinum 5mg/1,25mg/5mg N30 film-coated tablets – pharmacy price 10.43 EUR; patient co-payment 7.35 EUR	Perindoprilum/Amlodipinum/ Indapamidum 4*mg/5mg/1,25mg N30 tablets – pharmacy price 7,63 EUR, patient co-payment 4,55 EUR	2,80 EUR
Ischemic heart disease, arrhythmias, high blood pressure	Metoprololum 100 mg N30 prolonged-release tablets – pharmacy price 10.05 EUR, patient co-payment 7.47 EUR	Metoprololum 100 mg N30 prolonged-release tablets – pharmacy price 3,44 EUR, patient co-payment 0,86 EUR	6,61 EUR
Stenocardia, chronic heart failure **	Isosorbidi mononitratum 60 mg N30 prolonged-release tablets – pharmacy price 9,32 EUR, patient co-payment 5,97 EUR	Isosorbidi mononitratum 60 mg N60 prolonged-release tablets – pharmacy price 9,32 EUR, patient co-payment 2,64 EUR	3,31 EUR
Total for one month:	pharmacy price 29,80 EUR, patient co-payment 20,79 EUR	pharmacy price 15,73 EUR, patient co-payment 6,73 EUR	14,06 EUR

* – therapeutically equivalent doses, bioequivalence proven.

** – the same number of tablets for the original and generic medicine is compared. As the original medicine contains 30 tablets in a package, but the generic medicine – 60 tablets, half of the price of the generic medicine and patient co-payment is included in the calculation of the total amount for one month.