Drug prices may plummet as patents expire
The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the world's 20 best-selling drugs, including Lipitor. (June 14, 2011) Credit: AP
The cost of several prescription medicines used daily by millions of people should plummet over the next year or so.
The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the world's 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two: cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.
The magnitude of this wave of expiring drugs patents is unprecedented. Between now and 2016, blockbusters with about $255 billion in global annual sales are set to go off patent, notes EvaluatePharma Ltd., a London research firm.
Generic competition, which typically costs 20 percent to 80 percent less, will then decimate sales of the brand-name drugs and slash the cost to patients and companies that provide health benefits.
Top drugs getting generic competition by September 2012 include: Lipitor, taken daily by about 4.3 million Americans, and Plavix, by 1.4 million. Generic versions of big-selling drugs for blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, depression, high triglycerides, HIV and bipolar disorder also are coming by then.
The flood of generics will continue for the next decade or so, as about 120 brand-name prescription drugs lose market exclusivity, according to prescription benefit manager Medco Health Solutions Inc.
"My estimation is at least 15 percent of the population is currently using one of the drugs whose patents will expire in 2011 or 2012," says Joel Owerbach, chief pharmacy officer for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, which serves most of upstate New York.
Those patients, along with businesses and taxpayers who help pay for prescription drugs through corporate and government prescription plans, collectively will save a small fortune.
Doctors also hope the lower prices will significantly reduce the number of people jeopardizing their health because they can't afford needed medicines.
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