10 Medicine Report
New Medicines Supply Agreement Four-year Agreement reached between international researchbased biopharmaceutical industry and the State. The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, has announced two new Framework Agreements on Pricing and Supply of Medicines 2021-2025. The multiannual agreements with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) and Medicines for Ireland (MFI) represent an important step in reducing the cost of medicines and improving access to innovative new medicines for patients. The new deals will deliver: • improved access for patients to new and innovative medicines • reductions in the cost of existing medicines • an easing of financial pressure on the health services into the future It is estimated that this will result in the State paying between ¤600 million and ¤700 million less for medicines than it would otherwise. The four-year Framework Agreement on the Supply and Pricing of Medicines, agreed between the research-based industry and the State, takes effect from January 1, 2022. It means that medicines, brought forward by the research-based biopharmaceutical industry after years of research and development, will be available to patients faster through an improved funding framework. Padraic O’Brien, Chairperson, Medicines for Ireland commented, ‘We welcome the new Supply and Pricing of Medicines Framework announced by Minister Donnelly. We believe, as the representative of the companies who supply the
majority of medicines in Ireland daily, this agreement will bring increased patient access to generic and biosimilar medicines in Ireland, offering patients and healthcare professionals more choice, and yielding substantial savings to the State over the years ahead.” Director David Delaney echoed these sentiments adding, “This is a transformational agreement that will ensure even greater access to generic and biosimilar medicines in Ireland. The Minister, the HSE, the Department of Health and our member companies have worked tirelessly to make this new Agreement a reality, ensuring the focus remained on patient access to medicines. The Agreement is a positive step forward, bringing patients in Ireland earlier access to best value biosimilar and generic medicines in their patient journey.” Next year, IPHA member companies expect to propose about 35 innovative new medicines for a range of medical conditions, including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, spinal muscular atrophy and many forms of cancer. These medicines would treat almost 17,500 patients. The ¤30 million for new medicines, announced by the Government in Budget 2022, will help to give more patients access to new treatments in the innovation pipeline. Over the four years of the Agreement, the research-based industry expects to propose over 170 innovative new medicines. The new Agreement means there will be an improved funding framework in place to support the Health Service Executive’s reimbursement process and growth in the availability of innovative new medicines. The research-based biopharmaceutical industry has agreed to staged increases in rebates to the State on sales of
“We believe, as the representative of the companies who supply the majority of medicines in Ireland daily, this agreement will bring increased patient access to generic and biosimilar medicines in Ireland” Padraic O’Brien, Chairperson, Medicines for Ireland
FEBRUARY 2022 • HPN | HOSPITALPROFESSIONALNEWS.IE
“The Agreement is a positive step forward, bringing patients in Ireland earlier access to best value biosimilar and generic medicines in their patient journey” David Delaney, Director, Medicines for Ireland on-patent and off-patent unique medicines, rising from 5.5% this year to reach 9% in October 2024. The industry will deliver about ¤89 million in rebates in that period. When combined with price discounts on off-patent medicines that have market competitors and with price realignment measures, IPHA calculates the value of efficiencies over four years at between ¤700 million and ¤800 million. The research-based industry believes the Agreement provides for adequate, sustained investment in innovative new medicines, with allocations decided annually based on horizon scanning and the budgetary process. IPHA will monitor, and contribute towards, the achievement of an improved timeline between a company’s application for reimbursement of a new medicine in the health services, with the State committing to resourcing the reimbursement system sufficiently for the timely processing of applications. Our analysis shows that it has taken more than three years to reimburse some innovative new medicines. The State has committed to increasing the number of HSE Drugs Group reimbursement decision-making slots. These are expected to total between 50 and 60 annually. That would represent an increase in the number of slots of between 35% and 62% over 2020. The move is a capacity-building measure that should improve the flow of clinically beneficial innovative new medicines to the health services. The most recent data, gathered annually by health analysts IQVIA for EFPIA, the research-based biopharmaceutical industry’s European representative organisation, shows that, among western European countries, only France and Portugal are slower than Ireland in making innovative new medicines available to patients. Patients in Germany get
The Agreement provides a platform for helping to raise healthcare standards through a steady, continuous flow of innovative new medicines that emerge from years of research and development. The announcement by the Government of ¤30 million for new medicines in Budget 2022 was a welcome step towards improving the funding environment” Paul Reid, President, IPHA innovative new medicines four times faster than in Ireland. Among 34 European countries surveyed, Ireland places 18th. There will be no change in the 14 European countries used to calculate medicines prices in Ireland. This ‘reference basket’ comprises Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
