New Study Shows Seniors Paid Nearly $22 Billion in Extra Out-of-Pocket Costs for Generic Medicines
WASHINGTON, DC (February 28, 2019) – Today’s report from Avalere is further evidence that America’s patients are needlessly spending too much out of pocket for affordable generics. Since 2015, seniors have paid nearly $22 billion in additional out-of-pocket costs for their prescription drugs in Medicare. We applaud the Trump Administration for taking bold steps to […]
Association for Accessible Medicines Warns Build Back Better Act Threatens Patient Access
WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 19, 2021) — The House-passed Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376) threatens the only segment of our health care system that consistently drives prices down for patients. For more than three decades, generic medicines have provided savings of up to 95% off brand-name drug prices through robust competition. The nascent biosimilar industry […]
Medicare Negotiations Serve as a Catalyst to a Perpetual Monopoly
Generic medicines offer proven cost savings for America’s seniors and taxpayers, more than $2 trillion over the past 10 years alone. This is the result of robust head-to-head price competition under which multiple generic drug makers fight for market share based on dramatically lower prices. Despite this successful track record, lawmakers in Congress are proposing […]
AAM Statement on President’s Build Back Better Plan
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 12, 2021) — AAM and our member companies are ready to partner with the Biden administration to ensure all Americans have access to the lifesaving medications they need at a price that they can afford. Ninety percent of the prescriptions filled in the United States are for safe, effective and affordable generic […]
New Evidence Shows Medicare Part D Plans Continue to Fail to Get New Generics to Seniors
Introduction Generic medicines play a key role in reducing costs and increasing patient access, saving the U.S. health care system $313 billion in 2019 alone and close to $2.2 trillion over the last decade.1 New generic entrants benefit patients and the health care system by introducing competition for high-priced drugs. However, new evidence confirms that […]
AAM Statement on the Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 27, 2021) — The Ensuring Access to Lower-Cost Medicines for Seniors Act (HR 2846) could save America’s seniors with Medicare Part D coverage more than $4 billion a year by lowering their out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs and restoring the original intent of the Medicare Part D program. The Association for Accessible Medicines endorses […]
White Paper: Access Denied: Why New Generics Are Not Reaching America’s Seniors
The unabated high cost of prescription medicines in America has prompted a public outcry for solutions from state and federal policymakers as well as health care leaders. Meanwhile, FDA-approved generic medicines continue to generate competition for more expensive brand drugs and reduce costs for America’s patients for 35 years running. Generic drugs are a core […]
AAM Statement on President Biden’s Nomination of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure as CMS Administrator
WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 19, 2021) — The Association for Accessible Medicines and its members look forward to working with President Biden’s CMS Administrator-designee Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to enhance patient access to safe, effective and affordable generic and biosimilar medicines. It will be critical for CMS, in working with Congress, to update the Medicare program in order […]
Medicare Part D Generic Drug Tiering Request for Comment: Implications for Patient Out-of-Pocket Spending and Part D Plan Costs
The Medicare Part D program has offered prescription drug coverage through private plans that actively manage prescription drug benefits through the creation of formulary tiers and cost-sharing. In 2019, CMS proposed restricting plans’ ability to place generic drugs on non-generic tiers. In this analysis, Avalere estimates the implications of CMS’ potential new requirement on beneficiary […]
AAM and Biosimilars Council Statement on CMS Decision to Update Part D Program
WASHINGTON, DC (January 15, 2020) — The Association for Accessible Medicines and its Biosimilars Council applaud the decision by CMS to update the Part D program and allow plans to adopt a second, preferred specialty tier with lower cost-sharing. This proposal is an important first step to support adoption of biosimilars. It provides Part D […]
AAM Supports Updating Medicare to Lower Costs for America’s Seniors
Even though generics and biosimilars provide consistent savings for taxpayers and consumers, today’s Medicare patients too often face obstacles to using these lower-cost options. This is a result of outdated policies that can unintentionally encourage plans to prioritize formulary placement of high-cost brand drugs and that fail to reflect the emergence of new competitive therapies. […]
White Paper: Sidelined: How Seniors Miss Out On Savings Available Through Generic Substitution
Generic medicines are an integral component of America’s pharmaceutical care system, driving substantial savings to patients and public programs. Even as spending on prescription drugs continues to rise in public programs, the use of generic medicines has blunted increasing brand drug prices, generating savings of $293 billion in 2018 alone. In fact, the average price of […]
