 The Portuguese generic medicines market: What’s next?Alexandre Morais Nunes, Diogo Cunha Ferreira, Andreia de Matos and Rui Miranda Julião Health Policy, 2020, vol. 124, issue 4, 397-403 Abstract: Brand-name medicines have dominated the Portuguese market for several decades with unquestionable exclusivity. This resulted particularly from the absence of a requirement of prescriptions by international non-proprietary name. To promote the enhancement of both efficiency and sustainability in the health system, the Portuguese government introduced the generics in Portugal by the 90 s. However, only in the first decade of the 21st century were some policies implemented to increase their market share. Although some expectations were created, the use of generics has increased moderately during that period, in which policies to promote them were consolidated by imposing the austerity principles in the midst of the economic and social crisis. This study analyses the main policy measures already implemented as well as the incentives created for the replacement of brand-name medicines with generics. In addition, the present study also makes some recommendations to promote a broader and better use of generics in Portugal. Keywords: Generics; Portugal; Economic crisis; Broadening use of generics (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:124:y:2020:i:4:p:397-403 DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.02.014 Access Statistics for this article Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier |
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