Each year, the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) publishes its report on generic drug savings (here). The data is based on the independent IQVIA organization’s findings. Some interesting findings in the forty-page report are outlined below:
- 93% of generic prescriptions are filled at $20 or less.
- The average co-pay of for a generic product covered by insurance is $6.06 compared to an average brand co-pay of $40.30.
- 90% of prescription are filled generically.
- 10% of prescriptions are filled by branded drugs but account for 77% of all drug spending.
- Generics accounted for savings of $265.1 billion in 2017.
- 21.3% of patients abandoned (did not get their prescription filled) their branded prescription vs. only 8.1% of patients abandoning their generic prescriptions (remember the most expensive prescription is one that the patient needs but does not get filled!).
- See the report for state-by-state savings from generics.
- In the first eight years of the biosimilar program, eleven applications were approved in the U.S. compared to forty approved in the European Union.
- Not all biosimilars approved have been marketed since approval because of patent issues and the uptake of biosimilars is much lower than that of generic small molecule drugs.
There are many more tidbits of information in the report. Pease see the report cited above and enjoy its contents.
