WASHINGTON, DC (May 13, 2019) — The Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) has released details of its 2019 Access & Savings Report, with key findings that underscore the importance of generics and biosimilars to American patients. According to the forthcoming report, the U.S. health care system has saved $2 trillion in the last decade due to the availability of low-cost generics, $293 billion of which came in 2018 alone.
Subtitled “The Case for Competition,” the report builds on independent research from IQVIA (formerly Quintiles and IMS Health, Inc.) to quantify how much money American patients and the U.S. health care system are saving because of generic and biosimilar alternatives to brand-name prescription and biologic medications.
"The 2019 Access and Savings Report once again confirms that generics and biosimilars bring down overall health care costs," says AAM President and CEO Chip Davis.
Additional findings of the forthcoming report include:
- Generic medicines for the treatment of mental health and cardiovascular conditions account for $777 billion in savings over the last 10 years.
- Medicare tallied $90.3 billion in generic savings in 2018.
- Medicaid saved $46.8 billion in 2018 through the use of generics.
- California had the largest savings of any state, with $26.1 billion; average savings per state was $917 million
- Generic medicines account for 90 percent of the prescriptions filled in the United States but are responsible for only 22 percent of total spending on prescription medicine.
- In 2018, 95.3 percent of generic prescriptions had a copay below $20.
- In 2018, the average generic primary copay was $5.63 versus an average primary copay for brand-name drugs of $40.65.
Check back for additional data on savings by state and therapeutic area.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Rachel Schwartz
202.249.7147
Source: IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, Generic Savings in the United States, Michael Kleinrock, May, 2019