Excerpt from Chip Davis, President & Chief Executive Officer, Association for Accessible Medicines:
2016 marked the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association. Our achievements over the years and our contributions to the health system have been extraordinary. We have witnessed remarkable growth in the use of generic medicines, with nearly 3.9 billion generic prescriptions dispensed last year, up from just 1.3 billion prescriptions in 2001. The generic share of the prescription drug market has doubled over this period, increasing from approximately 44 percent in 2001 to 89 percent today.
Our sector truly has become the backbone of the pharmaceutical industry. The real story of our success is not the number of prescriptions, size of companies, or market share. Our success is the millions of Americans who have affordable access to the medicines they need to live healthier and more productive lives. Whether enabling those on fixed incomes to afford the medicines their doctors prescribe, or freeing up hundreds of billions of health dollars for use toward other critical needs, generics are the proven solution to sustainable healthcare.
To enhance our ability to communicate these values, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association is now the Association for Accessible Medicines. This relaunch of our association, with the new name and new logo, reflects substantive changes within our association. The new brand combined with our enhanced operational fundamentals are already boosting the effectiveness of our organization.
Download the 2016 AAM Annual Report.