The Genormous Generic Market
By Clive Riddle, June 11, 2009
“Ginormous” is out. “Genormous” is in, at least if Pfizer is editing the Unabridged Dictionary of Pop Buzz Words, as they continue to go on record that they are pursuing generic growth. This week the Associated Press reported that Pfizer “expects to expand its offerings for generic pharmaceuticals by adding products to the business” quoting Dave Simmons, Pfizer President of Established Products. A couple of weeks ago Pfizer licensing agreements with two Indian based companies was reported as a major signal of their strategy to seek growth through generics and emerging markets.
Continued growth in generics would seem a smart recession and health reform based strategy. But generic growth has been sustained through this and the prior decade through good times as well. Let’s have a look at a few of the factors driving these Genormous numbers:
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The Average price of generic vs. brand prescriptions: Brand: $119.51 ; Generic: $34.34 [Prescription Drug Trends, September 2008, Kaiser Family Foundation]
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Average Rx Copay by Tier: Generic Tier $10; Preferred Tier: $26; Non Preferred Tier: $46; Fourth Tier: $75 [Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Health Benefits 2008 Annual Survey]
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Generic Fill Rates: 65% of all prescriptions and 21% of drug sales [Prescription Drug Trends, September 2008, Kaiser Family Foundation]
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Generic Fill Rate by $ Differential between Generic/ Preferred Brand Copay: $ 0- 5: 47.6%; $ 6-10: 49.2%; $11-15: 51.6%; $16-20: 52.6%; $21+ : 55.0% [The American Journal of Managed Care, June 2007, “Copayment Differentials and Generic Utilization” ]
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Employer Strategies to Reduce Pharmacy Costs: #1 Mentioned response (75%) was "Promote greater use of generic drugs" (2nd highest response - 48%- was "Improve management of specialty drugs" [Mercer Survey]
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The 2009 Survey of Health Care Consumers found that 3 in 10 consumers switched medications in the past year, with 38% of them switching to save money [Deloitte Center for Health Solutions]
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IMS Health reports that "annual U.S. prescription sales growth of 1.3 percent in 2008, to $291 billion. Dispensed prescription volume in the U.S. grew at a 0.9 percent pace. Factors influencing the market’s slower growth in 2008 included higher demand for less-expensive generic drugs, lower new product sales, and reduced consumer demand due to the economic turndown." [IMS Annual U.S. Pharmaceutical Sales Report]
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Under Medicare Part D, generic drugs were dispensed 88 percent of the time when generic substitutes were available [DHHS OIG, “Generic Drug Utilization In The Medicare Part D Program” November 2007]
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Reader Comments (5)
About half of the patients who were diagnosed of a major chronic condition were prescribed a generic medication in the past two years. Currently, about two-thirds of such patients are prescribed generic drugs. The generics market is especially booming for certain conditions such as high blood pressure, migraine and depression.
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