The Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013 has introduced a system of generic substitution and reference pricing. Under this legislation, interchangeable medicines are defined as those medicines that contain the same active ingredient in the same strength, are in the same pharmaceutical form, and have the same route of administration. Reference pricing involves setting a common reimbursement price for selected groups of medicines that have been listed by the HPRA as interchangeable, and is introduced one medicine at a time. For each active substance the HPRA has or will publish and maintain a list of interchangeable medicines on their website (see http://www.hpra.ie/homepage/medicines/medicines-information/generics-lists) and the HSE has or will subsequently set a reference price (see http://www.hse.ie/eng/health/hl/Generics/ref/).
The Interchangeable Medicines and Reference Pricing section in the MIMS Ireland directory contains a table of all active ingredients on the interchangeable medicines list, their strength, pharmaceutical form, and route of administration. It also includes reference prices for selected groups of medicines, where they have been introduced. Medicines which can be substituted by another medicine on this list are denoted by the interchangeable medicines symbol in their product monographs throughout the MIMS Ireland publication.
Last updated 28th January 2016 – download section here.
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