WQ93670 (e) Tabled on 07/08/2024

What proportion of NHS Wales's drug expenditure was spent on generic, rather than branded, versions of medicines in 2023-24?

Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care | Answered on 13/08/2024

The information below has been provided by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership.  It provides the number and cost of prescription items dispensed in primary care in Wales in 2023/24 for medicines for which generic versions were available.

Total Items

Total Generic Items

Generic Items %

Basic Cost of All Items

Basic Cost of Generics

Cost of Generics %

81,878,211

63,349,316

77.4%

£633,382,585

£244,752,586

38.6%

Medicines for secondary care are procured through competitive tendering processes which may mean some branded medicines are available at lower prices than generic versions.  In addition, all supplies of medicines in hospitals in Wales are recoded by their generic name.  For these reasons it is not possible to provide a figure for the proportion of secondary care medicines’ expenditure on generic versions.