IQVIA's Long sizes up generics market

There has been an explosion of new generics players entering the U.S. market. The Food and Drug Administration is approving a record number of ANDAs. Three purchasers control more than 90% of the retail market. These three trends in the generics market are the most significant, according to Doug Long, IQVIA’s vice president of industry relations. 

“The generic market is much more crowded today, and there has been persistent generic price deflation over the past three-plus years. The oral solid market is the most crowded and suffers the most price deflation. You could say oral solids or pills is in many ways a commodity market,” Long said.

What factors are driving generic companies’ expansion into new therapeutic categories and formulations? Long pointed out that many of the approved ANDAs are never marketed because there are too many players already marketing a particular molecule. 

“Many generic companies are moving up the value chain where the products are more difficult to make and there is less competition, for example, injectables and transdermals,” he said. 

With the increasing complexity and difficulty of making these new generic products, Long said that companies will need new expertise. 

As he surveyed the future, Long said that with specialty drugs accounting for almost 50% of  U.S. market dollar sales and the vast majority of new product approvals, there will be a tremendous need for specialty generics and biosimilars. “The industry is maximizing out on the traditional generic penetration,” he said.