In 2017, the average retail cost of 260 generic drugs widely used by older adults for chronic conditions was $365 for a year of therapy, compared with $6,798 for
brand-name drugs.
A generic medicine is the same as a
brand-name medicine in dosage, safety, effectiveness, strength, stability, and quality, as well as in the way it is taken and the way it should be used.
Sacks, M.D., M.P.H., from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues estimated the additional cost of prescribing
brand-name combination medications instead of generic constituents in a retrospective analysis for 2011 through 2016 for Medicare part D beneficiaries prescribed 29
brand-name combination drugs.
offers an international
brand-name mail-order program, directly to consumers.
(1) How commonly are
brand-name medications used when a generic version is available?
In the setting of tiered copayments in typical pharmacy benefit designs, initiating a generic versus a
brand-name statin seems to be associated with lower out-of-pocket costs, improved adherence to therapy, and improved clinical outcomes," the researchers concluded (Ann.
The latest litigation involves allegations that
brand-name drug makers are refusing to sell product samples to generic-drug companies for bioequivalence testing--testing that determines whether the generic version of a drug is the exact replica of the
brand-name version.
Schwarz Pharma, Inc., Julie Demahy alleged that she had sustained neurological harm from taking a generic version of Reglan, a heartburn medication, and that the
brand-name manufacturer was liable for it.
In fact, only 9% claimed not to buy store brands because they felt that the quality or taste was inferior to the
brand-name product.
For ACE inhibitors and ARBs, 90% of the variation in costs was due to the use of
brand-name ARBs, which had no generic equivalents during the study period.
Medicaid's net costs for
brand-name drugs have increased less than inflation lately because drug makers paid rebates to states, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general's office.
We found that the average U&C price for the commonly used
brand-name prescription drugs we reviewed increased about 6 percent per year from January 2000 through January 2007.
* Do not authorize the pharmacy to switch patients from a
brand-name antiepileptic drug to a generic without your approval.
You may find that many generic products, although cheaper, just can't match the quality of their
brand-name counterparts.
