The Federal Office for Public Health is currently studying a possible 20% price drop for co-immoxicillin on December 1, RTS learned. The Pharma denounces a relentlessness against an already very cheap medication. It does not exclude the withdrawal of the product.
The price of co-abmoxicillin is currently in a screech by the Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP), like that of all antibiotics. The OFSP re -examines a third of the drugs of The list of specialties (LS).
Objective: to check, in particular, if they are sold at the right price. After the first evaluations, the OFSP is of the opinion that the price of this antibiotic, widely used in pediatrics, could be lowered by 20%, RTS learned.
This analysis makes representatives of the Pharma jump, because its price is already low: less than 10 francs for a treatment of 10 days, for the oral solution. Added to this is the fact that this medication is subject to shortages.
Small volumes
For Lukas Schalch, Managing Director of Intergenerika, the OFSP is mistaken: “Pediatric drugs still have relatively limited volumes”, he explained Monday in the RTS morning.
“It is a form of drug not really lucrative and interesting for distributors. If this 20% drop between in force, distributors will simply remove the drug from the market, because it is no longer profitable,” he warns.
For its part, the OFSP replied that it will be necessary to wait for the end of the evaluation procedure to know the final price for this antibiotic and that it is therefore not certain that its price will be lowered. The Office recalls that distributors always have the possibility of requesting an exemption.
In recent years, more than 100 exemptions for price drops have been granted for drugs deemed important to supply.
Simplified procedure
The Federal Office of Public Health also specifies that “under legal provisions, it is now required to verify that all drugs, including their preparations of second notification – that is, generics and biosimilars – meet the admission conditions.” In other words, to ensure that they are effective, appropriate and economic.
Finally, in the future, the procedure should be simplified: Parliament decided last March that certain drugs with low economy or essential potential for supply could be immediately exempt from tariff re -evaluation.
The criteria are currently under discussion at the OFSP. The development of the order provisions is underway and their entry into force is provided for 2027.
Céline Fontannaz