The Generic Pharmaceutical Association has this report today on "Generic Drug Savings in the U.S." The cover boasts "Savings $1 Trillion over 10 Years." The blog Pharmalot read the report before me and noted these findings: In 2011, although nearly 80 percent of 4 billion prescriptions written in the US were for generics, generics accounted for only 27 percent of total drug spending. And the report forecasts that generic use of biologics (for example, blood and tissue products) will reach nearly 87 percent by 2015.
On a related issue, Public Citizen petitioned the Food and Drug Administration last August to amend its labeling regulations to allow generic drug manufacturers to revise drug labeling when they become aware that labeling is inadequate, based on new information about, for example, risks or contraindications. The petition is based in part on the fact that generics gain so much market share so quickly after they come on the market, and yet the manufacturers lack brand-name manufacturers' ability to revise labeling. Bills to effect the same result were introduced in both the Senate and the House last April. The FDA has yet to respond substantively to either Public Citizen's petition or to the bills.
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