Proposal to ban prescription of brand medicines turned down

The government has turned down a suggestion to amend the Medicines Act so that doctors would no longer be allowed to prescribe branded medicines.

During talks between medicine agents and the government, as a result of which Maltese patients should soon have access to more medicines at lower prices, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise (GRTU) claimed patients should not be forced to buy a branded product when they could get generic medicines. These medicines imitate branded drugs but are cheaper because they are patent free.

Since the medicine purchased by patients is determined to a great extent by doctors' prescription, the GRTU argued, reducing registration fees to encourage the importation of generics should be backed by a change in the law forcing doctors to prescribe the international non-propriety name (INN) for a product's active ingredient and not a particular brand.

"Generics certified in the European Union, which are those imported to Malta, are of high quality despite the fact that some still view them with disdain locally," GRTU's Mario Debono, a pharmacist and medicine importer, said yesterday.

But during the talks, government representatives claimed that such a judgement should lie with doctors, whose professional discretion should not be overruled by legislation.

The government's side, led by Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech, argued that as the law stands, pharmacists may offer an alternative brand or cheaper generic equivalents, "unless the prescriber specifically requests a particular branded product by writing 'branded' or '®' on the prescription".

Reginald Fava, of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and a branded-medicine importer, was of a different view. During a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Fava said pharmacists had no right to change what the doctor prescribed.

"If dispensers were to have the right to change what the doctor prescribes, they would sell the products on which they profit most," he said, standing his ground when reporters pointed out that a pharmacist may, by law, offer generics unless the doctor specifically notes that no substitution is allowed.

Though it is often rumoured that doctors' and pharmacists' behaviour is influenced by drug companies, especially when it comes to prescribing and dispensing medicine, Medical Association of Malta general secretary Martin Balzan had told The Times in an interview that prescribing was in no way influenced by drug companies, saying that it was not ethical for doctors to promote one company's product over another.