For the most part, there is an assumption that generic drugs are cheap, but according to Karim Meeran, professor of endocrinology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Charing Cross Hospital, London, you’d be surprised at how much generic drugs cost – even those that have been available for years.
In a letter to the BMJ (1), Meeran, and his co authors, Sirazum M Choudhury and John Wass, discuss the scandal of generic drug pricing and suggest a radical shake up – developing an arm’s length NHS organization to manufacture essential, generic drugs. “This would enable the NHS itself to set the market price for generic drugs. Such a company could be run as a non-profit making NHS Trust with the aim of making generic drugs at cost prices, setting prices to ensure solvency, and ploughing profits back to getting approval for other generics,” the authors write. We caught up with Meeran to learn more.
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References
- K Meeran, SM Choudhury, J Wass, “The scandal of generic drug pricing: drug regulation policies need review,” BMJ, 356 (2017). A Amin, AH Sam, K Meeran, “Glucocorticoid replacement,” BMJ, 349 (2014). N Kyriakakis, RD Murray, M Quinkler, “Re: Glucocorticoid replacement: Do we really have enough evidence to recommend the use of prednisolone as first line therapy?” BMJ, 349 (2014). EMC, “Synacthen Depot Ampoules 1mg/ml”, (2017). Available at: http://bit.ly/2n98iVN. Last accessed March 27, 2017.
