NEWS

Use of generic drugs by state hospitals fails to take off

Greek public hospitals barely increased the proportion of generic drugs they used between 2012 and 2013, falling well behind the government’s target for only 40 percent of medicines to be brands, new financial data has revealed.

Expenditure details for 2013 filed by state hospitals showed that 27.3 percent of the money spent on medicines was for generic drugs. A year earlier, this figure stood at 26.8 percent. The government had aimed for it to rise to 60 percent as it strives to bring down healthcare spending. Last year, public hospitals reduced their operational costs by 12.3 percent to 1.7 billion euros.

In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said he would consider it a “failure” if this figure remains at less than 30 percent at the end of 2014 and that the goal of 60 percent would probably be reached by the end of 2015.

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