by Jared Reed  

The government is to claw back money from pharmacists in price cuts for several drugs that a new disclosure scheme has revealed as being heavily discounted below PBS reimbursement levels.  

From 1 August the NSAID meloxicam, along with ondansetron, doxorubicin and mitozanthrone, will have their prices reduced by up to two thirds.  

For meloxicam this means a 23% reduction, and for doxorubicin the reduction is as high as 64%, the Pharmacy Guild has announced.  

But the Pharmacy Guild says the disclosure scheme should debunk the allegations that community pharmacies reap lucrative discounts or hidden incentives on generic drugs.  

“Of these four, three are drugs that are rarely dispensed in a community pharmacy – they are specialist drugs that are dispensed primarily through private hospitals,” said Kos Sclavos, President.  

The scheme also showed that discounts on six other drugs (misulpride, fluconazole, fosinopril-hydrochlorthiazide, oxybutinin, perindopril-indapamide and sodium valproate) amounted to less than 10%, below the threshold to trigger price cuts.    

“This data puts to rest once and for all mischievous and misleading claims that significant trading terms apply to all generics,” he said.  

However the Guild “conservatively” estimates that reductions of the four drugs will save the government $13 million per year.  

The first round of the PBS price disclosure system was announced in 2008, along with mandatory price reductions of 25% on 99 PBS drugs.