Over 12 million e-prescriptions issued in Australia

E-prescriptions provide a safer, faster, and more effi cient supply of prescriptions

AUSTRALIA

Over 12 million electronic prescriptions have been issued in Australia, as healthcare providers and patients go digital, data from the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) revealed.

“Electronic prescriptions are providing a safer, faster, and more effi cient supply of prescriptions to Australians – in person via their doctor or a telehealth consultation – sent straight to their mobile phone or by email,” ADHA’s CEO Amanda Cattermole said.

More than 22,000 prescribers are now issuing electronic prescriptions to patients and at least 98% of all community pharmacies around the country are dispensing them, Cattermole noted.

Charlotte Hespe, a general practitioner (GP) with a practice in inner-city Sydney, said the

Electronic prescriptions provide a safer, faster, and more effi cient supply of prescriptions to Australians

transition to electronic prescriptions is straightforward for GPs, noting that most practice management soft ware now has the capability to issue electronic prescriptions to patients.

“If it is a patient’s choice to receive an electronic prescription instead of a paper prescription, then the GP just needs to select the electronic script option instead of ‘print’ when issuing a prescription,” Hespe said.

In October 2020, Sydney’s fi ve million residents were given access to e-prescriptions. Th is followed the rollout across all of Victoria in September 2020.

Th rough this, a patient seeking an e-prescription from their doctor will have their doctor select this option in their soft ware when creating the prescription and the patient will receive an SMS or email. Th e patient then takes this to their preferred pharmacy.

Th e SMS or email contains a QR code “token” that unlocks the electronic prescription from a secure, encrypted electronic prescription delivery service. Once scanned, the token allows the pharmacist to view the prescription and dispense the medicine.

Last June, ADHA rolled out Provider Connect Australia, where healthcare organisations around the country can update information about their services and practitioners in just one place, eliminating the need to keep multiple directories up-to-date manually, as was the previous requirement.

THE CHARTIST: CHINA IMPLEMENTS PHARMA PATENT REFORMS

China has made its latest patent amendments effective, with reforms that aim to ensure protection against untimely and unfair generic competition. Thus, the local pharma market makes itself more competitive and conducive for research companies according to a GlobalData report.

The latest reforms include the drug patent linkage system, the patent term extension for drugs, and the patent term compensation system.

Patent reforms by China will be viewed as a greater opportunity to incentivize research and bolster entry into the world’s second-largest pharma market. Despite being a generic market historically, the country has made reforms to drive research.

The pharmaceutical industry of China is expected to reach $300.9b by 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 12.2%.

Top 5 Patent Authority Rankings by Grants in H1 2021

Source: Global data