Generic substitution: Implications for safe medicines management

The government and health authorities have a duty to provide safe, effective and efficient health care. The Office of Health Economics Compendium of Health Statistics shows that 10.5% of the NHS budget is spent on drugs (The Pharmaceutical Journal, 2008: 145). As the NHS is funded through public money with competing priorities there is a responsibility to use this money as efficiently as possible. The Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) is the vehicle through which the Department of Health (DH) controls prices of branded medication. The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (2008) proposes that the NHS could reduce costs by over £200 million annually through price cuts and substituting branded medicines with equivalent generic medicines. The government has advised that it is going to introduce generic substitution in primary care in January 2010 following discussion with interested parties (DH, 2009).