Cefi Foundation’s statements on the action plan to promote the use of drugs regulating the market in the National Health System

BIOSIMILAR AND GENERIC DRUGS

With the document of statements, the CEFI Foundation analyses each of the specific measures proposed in the Plan in detail but, in general, it believes that in the draft of the plan, the basic principles of health protection, physicians’ freedom to prescribe and patients’ right to be prescribed the best medicine available must take precedence over the prescription criteria of certain drugs.

The CEFI Foundation believes that:

– The pharmaceutical policy should be aimed at guaranteeing quality: the best treatment available based on medical criteria; equality: equal treatment, and therefore, measures that do not favour one type of drug and harm others; and the sustainability of the system, looking for drugs that meet the criteria of being cost-effective.

– The Plan discriminates in favour of generic and biosimilar companies, harming innovative companies as it aims for a rapid transition from brand-name drugs to generic/biosimilar ones which, by gaining market share, forces prescriptions to change without taking into account the patients’ situation, the protection of their health, and other major issues such as equitable access, physicians’ freedom to prescribe and fostering innovation. We have a free market economy where competition is guaranteed. If in that context, biosimilar and generic drugs are the ones that best meet these needs, they will be the ones that physicians prescribe once there is competition after the exclusivity period.

– The Plan makes it clear that in order to be financed by the NHS in Spain, brand-name drugs are obliged by law to align their price with the price of generic drugs. This measure is what guarantees sustainability. There are no real savings from consuming generic drugs because they are same price.

– We do not understand the advantage of this measure at this time when the generic/biosimilar drug market is well-established and widespread thanks to the actions of Spanish and multinational companies.

-It calls into question the legitimacy of the government to carry out such a major reform.

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