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gurealB
New Member
6 Posts |
 Posted - 08/09/2012 : 23:19:21
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In the past ten years, Americans have saved over $1 trillion with generic narcotics. Big Pharma might not be so enthralled with them, but they signify almost 8 out of every 10 prescriptions filled in the U.S.
Law of limitations
Congress passed the Hatch Waxman act in 1984 making most prescription narcotics cheaper for Americans. The law states that drug corporations may patent their drug and be the only company that sells it. The only problem is that the patent runs out pretty quickly, and then generic drug-makers can use the exact same formula to produce the same pill for less.
Generic narcotics are 80 to 85 percent less expensive than brand-name narcotics, which means Americans saved $158 billion on generics in 2010. About 8 out of every 10 medications filled is for a generic narcotic, according to the Food and drug administration.
Good for public savings
A recently released study by the Generic Prescription Association asserts that in the past ten years, generic narcotics have saved consumers over $1 trillion, according to the Huffington Post. Last year, according to MarketWatch, there was a 22 percent increase in generic prescriptions in 2010.
Though nearly 80 percent of the 4 billion prescriptions filled annually are generic drugs, they account for only 27 percent of all spending by customers on them. About 57 percent of those savings come from heart medication, anti-convulsant and anti-depressants, according to the Huffington Post. Generic retroviral drugs, according to NPR, have cut the cost of AIDS medications by about two-thirds, from more than $1100 to $335 per year, about the size of the average payday loan.
There have been a ton of really big drugs that have gone generic recently saving a lot of cash. For example, Plavix, a blood thinner, went off patent. There was also Effexor XR, an anti-depressant, and Lipitor. Foxamax, an osteoporosis medication, is also available in generic now. Lipitor was a really big deal since it was one of the most profitable narcotics in the world and ended up going for pennies on the dollar. It is very inexpensive to get now.
Other benefits
There are a ton of other advantages besides the savings, though the savings are really good. Generic narcotic corporations do not have to spend money trying to develop drugs.
Generics, by virtue of being less expensive, also can be dispersed to very needy individuals. For instance, according to Reuters, the government of India recently allocated the equivalent of $5.4 billion to provide generic drugs to poor people, who generally don't get much in the way of health care, as 40 percent of that country live below the poverty line. Currently, government programs extend free narcotics to less than 25 percent of the population. The brand new program will get free drugs to 52 percent of India's population by 2017.
Sources
Huffington Post
FDA
Marketwatch
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Several trillion dollars saved because of generic
