GPhA applauds new IMS Institute report

WASHINGTON — The main trade group for the generic drug industry is heralding a new cost analysis by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics showing that generic drugs can reduce co-payments by up to 80%.

According to the analysis, contained in the report “The Use of Medicines in the United States: Review of 2010,” the average co-payment for a generic drug was $6.06 per prescripton last year, compared with $23.65 to $34.77 for preferred and nonpreferred brand drugs.

“As this IMS analysis shows, having access to [a Food and Drug Administration]-approved generic version of a brand drug can cut the average co-pay for that medicine by more than 80%,” GPhA executive director Bob Billings said. “These are big savings for the hundreds of millions of Americans who have prescription drug coverage in their health insurance plans.”

Billings called for increase funding for the FDA’s Office of Generic Drugs to allow generics to get to market faster. Currently, the agency has a backlog of more than 2,000 applications, with as many as 365 of those applications related to new generic versions of branded drugs.