According to the Pharmalot blog, Express Scripts says the answer is? 82%!
Yes. 82% of patients switched to generics last year as their price fell by 10.2% as compared to an increase in price of brand-name drugs by 9.7%.
How Many Patients Would Switch To Generics? // Pharmalot.
What does this say about drug prices? Patients and third-party payers prefer cheap drugs. you can expect this trend to continue for any medications where a generic alternative is available.
But, you can also look at specialty drug sales -- which includes biologics for inflammatory diseases, MS and cancer -- where total spending increased by 19.6% last year. This is indicates that there is a market for innovative medications (that work) and that payers will pick up the tab.
Posted by Bruce Lehr April 7th 2011.
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