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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Big Year for Senior Citizens to Save on Generic
Drugs, Even in Medicare
Flood of new generic drugs having major impact on
cost for seniors
 July 17, 2006 – The year 2006 may be remembered as
the year prescription drugs got a whole lot cheaper for senior citizens.
Not just because of the Medicare prescription drug program but because
of the flood of lower-cost generic drugs coming on the market to replace
high-priced brand name drugs. "Never have so many branded drugs, with
annual sales of as much as $75 billion, lost their patents in so short a
time," says the Los Angeles Times.
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June 21, 2006 - Over the past five months, virtually all Medicare
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Generic of the Statin Drug Zocor Approved by
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Read more
on
Health & Medicine
Read more on
Medicare Drug Program |
|
Generic drugs, including new anti-cholesterol and
anti-depressants drugs, could save U.S. consumers $24.7 billion this
year alone, according to a report in June by Express Scripts, one of the
nation's largest managers of pharmacy benefit plans. The biggest savings
available this year the company says are in the anti-cholesterol class
at $10.3 billion.
For many older people, who are on the front line of
the fight against high cholesterol, the introduction of generics for the
statin drugs Zocor and Pravachol, is expecially good news. This just
leaves two brand-name stations standing – Lipitor and Crestor – that may
see their customers switching to the much-less-expensive generic
statins.
HealthPartners, the largest consumer-governed,
non-profit health care organization, projects that drug costs for
treating high cholesterol will decline by as much as $14 million
annually with just the introduction of the Zocor generic.
According to the research firm, IMS Health, statins
accounted for $16 billion in U.S. sales in 2005. Zocor was the second
most widely prescribed statin with sales in 2005 of $3.1 billion.
|
Some Recent Generics |
|
Brand-Name |
Generic |
Treating |
|
Zoloft |
Sertraline |
depression |
|
Pravachol |
Pravastatin |
high cholesterol |
|
Zocor |
Simvastatin |
high cholesterol |
|
Finasteride
Tablets, 5 mg |
Proscar |
benign prostatic hypertrophy in men
with an enlarged prostate |
|
Lamotrigine
Tablets (Chewable) |
Lamictal |
seizures due to epilepsy. |
|
Pletal |
Cilostazol |
pain in the legs when walking |
"A generic drug is identical, or bioequivalent to a
brand name drug in dosage form, safety, strength, route of
administration, quality, performance characteristics and intended use,"
according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"Although generic drugs are chemically identical to
their branded counterparts, they are typically sold at substantial
discounts from the branded price. According to the Congressional Budget
Office, generic drugs save consumers an estimated $8 to $10 billion a
year at retail pharmacies. Even more billions are saved when hospitals
use generics," the FDA says.
Several studies have also pointed out that the
savings for senior citizens on generic drugs in the Medicare
prescription drug program are gigantic.
Seniors in the Medicare program stand potentially
to save at least $23 billion dollars over the next five years as 14
major brand-name drugs commonly used by seniors are expected to become
available in generic form, according to a report in April by the
Pharmaceutical Care Management Association. If PCMA's analysis were
expanded beyond the top 100 drugs used by seniors, the savings would be
even greater.
In 2007, seven drugs commonly used by seniors -
Norvasc (heart disease), Ambien (sleep disorder), Zyrtec (allergies),
Lotrel (heart disease), Coreg (hypertension), Lamisil (fungal
infection), and Tequin (antibiotic) -- are expected to go generic. PCMA
estimates the potential savings in 2007 alone at nearly $700 million and
about $7 billion over the 2007-2010 period.
There are still heated discussions in Washington on
making changes to the Medicare drug program, including allowing Medicare
to negotiate with the drug-makers for better drug prices.
Senior citizens, however, can only look at that as
just one more gigantic reduction in the gigantic cost of drugs, because
they are already making big savings.
KaiserNet.org reports below on the Times' story and
more on generic drug news -
 Generic Competition for Several Best-Selling
Brand-Name Drugs Could Result in Billions of Dollars in Savings for
Consumers
Four of the 10 "best-selling" brand-name
prescription drugs will lose patent protection this year through 2010,
and the competition from generic versions of the medications could
result in billions of dollars in savings for consumers, the
Los Angeles Times
reports.
The anticholesterol medication Zocor, manufactured by
Merck,
and the antidepressant Zoloft, manufactured by
Pfizer,
lost patent protection last month.
In addition, the hypertension medication Norvasc,
manufactured by Pfizer, will lose patent protection next year, and the
asthma treatment Advair, manufactured by
GlaxoSmithKline,
will lose patent protection in 2008.
According to the Times, "Never have so many branded
drugs, with annual sales of as much as $75 billion, lost their patents
in so short a time," and the "savings for consumers could be enormous."
Generic medications, which can cost as much as 80% less than the
brand-name versions, currently account for about half of prescription
drugs sold, compared with about one-fourth in 1986. Ron Fontanetta, a
health care specialist at
Towers Perrin,
said that generic medications could account for more than 60% of the
prescription drug market by the end of next year.
According to pharmacy
benefit manager
Express Scripts,
generic medications will result in estimated savings of $24.7 billion
this year. The amount of savings that individual consumers will receive
depends on "how aggressively health plan and other care providers steer
patients to generics," the Times reports.
'Authorized Generics'
In response to increased competition from generic medications,
brand-name pharmaceutical companies have begun to manufacture or license
"authorized generics," which "are essentially the brand drug in a
different bottle," the Times reports.
According to the Times, consumer
advocates maintain that the sale of authorized generics "could stifle
competition from generics," but brand-name pharmaceutical companies
maintain that they "are not trying to undermine competition from
generics" and that they are "spurring" competition with the practice
(Yi, Los Angeles Times, 7/15).
"Reprinted with
permission from kaisernetwork.org You can view the entire
Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, and sign up
for email delivery at
www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser
Daily Health Policy Report is published for
kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family
Foundation. © 2006 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation.
All rights reserved.”
>>
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