By David Wetzler
President and Benefit Consultant
Over the next 14 months, generic drugs for seven of the world's best-selling drugs will become available as brand-name drug patents expire, including the top two: cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.
Competition from generic drugs will decrease brand-name sales, causing drug prices to plummet for patients, taxpayers who help pay for prescription drugs through government prescription plans and employers who sponsor health plans.
Generic medicines are chemically equivalent to the original brand-name drugs and work just as well for nearly all patients. When a drug loses patent protection, often only one generic version is on sale for the first six months, so the price falls a little bit initially. Then, several other generic makers typically jump in, driving prices down dramatically.
Last year, the average generic prescription cost $72, versus $198 for the average brand-name drug, according to consulting firm Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions. Those figures average all prescriptions, from short-term to 90-day ones.
Average copayments last year were $6 for generics, compared with $24 for brand-name drugs given preferred status by an insurer and $35 for nonpreferred brands, according to IMS Health.
Among the drugs that recently went off patent, Protonix, for severe heartburn, now costs just $16 a month for the generic, versus about $170 for the brand name. And of the top sellers that soon will have competition, Lipitor retails for about $150 a month, Plavix costs almost $200 a month and blood pressure drug Diovan costs about $125 a month. For those with drug coverage, their out-of-pocket costs for each of those drugs could drop below $10 a month.
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