Generic drug

Generics producer Sandoz is planning to invest roughly US$90 million at its site in Ljubljana to establish a dedicated centre for development of biosimilars by 2026. As part of the process to spin off from Novartis, Sandoz holds part of the Slovenian pharmaceutical company Lek.

Greece announced on Wednesday additional measures to deal with certain drug shortages, a problem it said was global and attributed to an increase in seasonal virus infections, supply chain issues, the energy crisis and reduced exports from Asia.

Generic drugs may be gaining ground in Greece in recent years, especially as a result of state measures to rationalize expenditure in pharmaceuticals during the bailouts, but the market penetration target has yet to be reached.

Greeks are resisting efforts to promote the use of generic medicines over more costly brand-name drugs, with genomes accounting for just 25 percent of total sales today compared to 18.5 percent before the start of the crisis.

Given that creditors had set a target of 60 percent in order to curb state expenditures on medicine, Brussels is frustrated with Greece's lack of progress.

In an extensive piece titled “Poor Greece splurges on costly drugs, to Brussels’s annoyance”, author Carmen Paun explains how the debt-stricken country has been squandering large sums of money on extremely expensive drugs despite the EU’s pressure to turn to more affordable drugs -so called

Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva said on July 27 that it was buying the generic drug business of Allergan for $40.5 billion, consolidating its position as a world leader in generics.

Teva will pay $33.75 billion in cash and offer $6.75 billion of its stock to Allergan, the company said, in a major move that will further shake up the industry.

Doctors are now being allowed to recommend specific generic drugs when they issue prescriptions, in what the government says is a move designed to increase the use of this form of medicines in Greece.

Health officials in Greece are considering removing a prescriptions ceiling imposed on all public healthcare doctors if they are able to ensure that at least 60 percent of the drugs they prescribe are generic.

Doctors who work with Greece’s main public healthcare provider, EOPYY, will from now on face strict cost limits on the drugs they can prescribe to each patient.

A ministerial decision published in the Government Gazette this week sets ceilings for each EOPYY doctor depending on his or her specialization, which part of the country he or she practices in and the month.

Greece is under pressure from the troika to increase the prescription of cheaper, generic medicines, which has only reached around 20 percent, Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said on Wednesday.