Patients are paying too much! A recent study shows that $13 billion a year in prescription drug savings are lost to brand prescription abuses.
When a brand-name prescription drug’s market exclusivity (its monopoly) and patents expire, generic and biosimilar medicines become available, the savings begin and patients win. That’s how the system is supposed to work. However, brand-name pharmaceutical companies have increasingly abused FDA’s safety programs (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies, or REMS) and other manufacturer-imposed restricted distribution of samples to delay competition and impede patient access to more affordable prescription drugs.
The result, according to a recent study by Alex Brill of Matrix Global Advisors, is $13.4 billion a year in unnecessary drug spending. We all pay more, as patients and taxpayers, and the cost impact is growing.
Fortunately, there is a solution to this $13.4 billion annual problem – passage of the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act.
