Association asks 5% update on generic prices in 2027

A association of the generic and biosimilar medicines sector today asked the government urgent measures to avoid the risk of rupture of essential medicines, including an update of at least 5% in the prices of unpatented drugs in 2027.

The Portuguese Association of Drugs for Health Equity (Equalmed) considers, in a statement, that the sustainability of the sector requires a government intervention, in a context marked by increased energy and logistics costs, inflation and difficulties in the production and supply chains.

In this sense, Equalmed proposes on the day that the State Budget for 2027 will be presented in parliament a set of measures aimed at “attenuating the current fuel crisis, but also other factors that have reduced the attractiveness of the sector in the last 20 years”.

The association advocates the revision of the pricing and updating regime for medicines not protected by patent, with an update fee, within the framework of the Annual Price Review for 2027, not less than 5%.

It also calls for the elimination of the extraordinary contribution on the pharmaceutical industry to ensure “continuous and equitable access to essential medicines”. Alternatively, it proposes to harmonize it to 2.5% in generic and biosimilar drugs in the hospital market.

Another measure is to review the model of incentives to health professionals in order to promote the prescription and dispensing of these drugs. The association justifies the proposal with the differences between national levels of adoption of these drugs compared to other countries.

The president of Equalmed, João Paulo Nascimento, warns in the statement that “the chains of production and supply of generic and biosimilar drugs have been facing difficulties for several years, which in many cases makes production unsustainable, especially in a sector where margins are reduced”.

According to the association, more than 326 thousand packages of generic drugs are dispensed daily in Portuguese pharmacies, but the average price difference of generic drugs is 55.3% lower than the reference medicines. In the hospital market, the difference is 96%.

“ The pressure on the sector stems from the combination of several factors, including high energy and logistics costs, inflation, relocation of production outside Europe, the effects of the pandemic and current international conflicts,” he points out, warning that “this context increases the risk of new ruptures and the reduction of the availability of essential medicines.”.

The data presented by the association also show a reduction in available supply. In 12 years, until July 2026, 2,453 presentations of drugs were discontinued in the outpatient market and 5,191 in the hospital market.

On the outpatient market, the public sale price of generics discontinued in 2026 was on average EUR 5.80 per package and on the hospital market of EUR 0.66 per unit.

“ Faced with this unsustainability of production, there are frequent ruptures of several molecules in pharmacies and very frequent hospital contests become deserted, a situation that will worsen if no appropriate political measures are taken to encourage the sector ", warns the responsible.

The association also warns that approximately 100 biological medicines should lose exclusivity in Europe by 2032, of which 79% currently have no biosimilars in development.

“ Since five of the 10 most expensive medicines in the hospital context were biological drugs, this situation may further aggravate the differences in the equity of access to medicines,” he warns, stressing that the issue is “particularly relevant” considering that the rates of use of these drugs in the NHS hospitals “are highly unequal”, with heterogeneous values between 6.4% and 99.2%”, according to July 2026 data.