Drug Prices

This week, we learned that employers experienced a 6.3% jump in health benefit costs last year.¹ Findings such as these, paired with high brand-name drug costs, are why commercial and employer-sponsored health plans have long looked forward to savings from biosimilar competition.

The biosimilars industry is proving that market competition works to drive down drug costs and increase patient access to medicines. According to recent data from IQVIA, savings from biosimilars increased over 800% from 2018 to 2020, from under $900M in 2018 to $7.9B in 2020¹. These savings are projected to reach over $30B annually by 2022, and collectively will save the U.S. health care system $133B from 2021 to 2025².

Amid rising health care costs, generic drugs stand out for delivering low-cost, affordable and accessible health care options for patients. As a result of robust head-to-head price competition that rapidly drives costs down to a fraction of the brand price, generics today comprise more than 90% of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States but only 18% of prescription drug spending.

U.S.

Rebate Penalties Threaten Seniors’ Access to Generics

The high out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs are top of mind for many Americans, particularly seniors in Medicare Part D. While there are meaningful bipartisan ideas to reduce patient liability for drug spending under the benefit, one policy under consideration, the application of inflation-based rebate penalties to generics, is misguided and would limit patients’ access to low-cost medicines.

AAM is doing our best to educate Congress about the impact and need to exempt generics for the sake of patients.

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.