GPhA Cites Opportunities for Generic Savings

Chip Davis, president and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) offered praise of a study published on May 9, 2016 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine. The new study revealed that from 2010­–2012, in the United States, more than $73 billion was spent on brand drugs when generic alternatives were available. Approximately 33% of that cost came from patients paying out-of-pocket for drugs, according to the study. Additionally the study says that less than optimal therapeutic substitution remains a missed opportunity for patient and health system savings.

In a May 12, 2016 statement, Davis wrote that this study might offer patients new opportunities for generic savings. In 2014, Davis wrote, generics saved the US healthcare system $254 billion, according to the “Generic Drug Savings in the US” report by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. “Still, there is more that can be done to put unrealized savings back into the health system,” Davis wrote.

Davis says that to increase the use and prescription of generics, Congress and others can pursue policy solutions. These policy solutions, Davis suggested, may include addressing FDA’s generic-drug application backlog, increasing the use of generics among the low-income Medicare population, the passing of the FAST Generics Act, ensuring biosimilars are safe and effective alternatives to biologics, and repealing Section 602 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.

Source: GPhA