The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7303 p728
12 June 2004

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Association of the European Self-Medication Industry: reports (more)

OTC switching could save €16bn a year in Europe

Reclassifying a third of the prescription medicines that are suitable for sale over the counter could save more than €16bn a year in the enlarged European Union, according to research (PDF 1.6MB) by the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry (AESGP).

The research shows that 15 per cent of all prescriptions issued by European doctors are for medicines to treat minor diseases. The total potential cost saving arises from the cost of prescribed medicines that could safely be bought together with the cost of lost working time.

Claude Le Pen, health economics professor at Paris Dauphine University, said that the annual potential savings in France were more than double the annual saving achieved by generic substitution introduced 10 years ago.

Professor Le Pen said that further benefits of switching treatment from prescribed medicines to OTC medicines included improvements to public health and greater understanding by patients that treatment choices they made had an economic impact.

But the development of the OTC market in Europe is not as fast as the AESGP would like to see. Professor Le Pen said that this is because governments are reluctant to see the change take place, prescribers generally oppose switching medicines from prescription control to OTC availability and regulatory agencies are cautious about reclassifying medicines.

Hans van Zoonen, Procter & Gamble’s European vice-president for pharmaceuticals and personal health care, said that successful OTC switching depended on the political will to connect the reclassification of medicines to the issue of strained national health budgets.

Ulf Wiinberg, president, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, said that the UK was the only European country where this political will existed.

The Journal’s attendance at the Association of the European Self-Medication Industry annual meeting in Madrid from 2 to 4 June was made possible by the Proprietary Association of Great Britain