Tens of millions of Americans entrust their health to generics and biosimilars. This publication introduces you to some of them.
According to the latest U.S. Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Savings Report, Americans who took generics and biosimilars saved $338 billion in health care costs in 2020 and nearly $2.4 trillion in the last decade. These medicines provide budgetary relief throughout the U.S. health care system, and taxpayers in all 50 states benefit from the savings generated for Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. On average, states saved $6.6 billion from the use of generics and biosimilars in 2020.
Something is wrong when America’s patients pay the same or more for an FDA-approved generic version of a high-priced brand drug. It’s even worse when those costs go up each year. Generics provide competition for expensive brand drugs and savings for patients. In 2020 alone, generics and biosimilars have saved the Medicare program $109.6 billion.1
At a moment when policymakers are contemplating measures to reduce drug prices for America’s patients, AAM’s 2021 U.S. Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Savings Report, featuring data from IQVIA, breaks the savings down by state, age, payer, common medical conditions and more.
Because tens of millions of Americans entrust their health to generics and biosimilars, they saved $338 billion in 2020, and nearly $2.4 trillion in the last decade.
Some key figures:
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.
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 is demonstrating similar potential, having cut the growth of oncology pharmaceutical spending in half in just one year.
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.