Drug costs continue to rise

December 16th, 2008 Filed under: Generic Medications by admin

Cost appears to be the real difference between most brand vs. generic drugs. Rising health care costs and the price of treatment in particular have received a lot of media attention. The fastest growing segment of good health care costs is prescription benefits, which is increasing at an average rate of 11.8% annually. Many patients is especially at risk for rising brand vs. generic drugs costs. Drug costs for patients are rising faster than for any other age group. Among patients 65 years and older, drug costs rose 16% in 1998, while the average drug costs for all other age groups rose 9.3%. In late October 2001, several health maintenance organizations (HMOs) announced they would pull out of the Medicare program by the end of the year, affecting nearly a million subjects.

Patients are living longer and using more brand vs. generic drugs. It is fair to add that some of the new expensive pills are actually less costly overall than conventional treatments, such as surgery. Generic drugs are less expensive than brand name drugs.

Generally, generic drugs are less expensive than brand name drugs. Most brand vs. generic drugs are approximately half the cost of their brand name counterparts. Based on 1998 values of the Average Wholesale Cost, the brand vs. generic drugs blood pressure drug called Hydrodiuril was eight times more expensive than its generic counterpart, hydrochlorothiazide. The anti-depressant Elavil was twice the cost of its generic amitriptyline. However, tamoxifen is a good exception to the rule. Here, the brand name made bought exclusive rights to the generic. Since the same pharmacy owns the rights to both brand vs. generic drugs tamoxifen, the cost for the generic is only 5 cent less. Investigation the manufacturers actions, since they appear to have discouraged other companies from marketing generic tamoxifen.

Presently, many treatment companies are merging, with larger companies acquiring smaller generic companies. These changes have affected the price difference brand vs. generic drugs between brand and generic products. Since a company may own both the brand and generic names, it costs the generic at a higher cost to discourage sales of the generic. Because of this, patients may not get the savings benefits of generic drugs. Technology has played a role in the development of more effective brand vs. generic drugs. Smaller pharmaceutical companies have provided the opportunity to increase the cost of brand vs. generic drugs.

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