Some name brands can have up to 20 generic equivalents, and I guess that is good news for consumers, and a big part of the reason is due to the major retailers offering the $4 and $9 deals for prescriptions. Overall though, generic sales were down a billion, which might reflect on individuals perhaps not going to the doctor in today’s economy as they can’t afford it.
One other little note too I thought about is with the increased number of generics being handled and the lower amount of profitability for the drug stores, how soon will it be that the retailers begin demanding e-prescribing for some of these drugs to drop some of the handling charges associated with paper prescriptions, maybe not, but just a thought kicking around in the back of my head, since there is one big active campaign now for patients to get their physicians to use e-prescribing at most stores.
I have permanent links on this blog to the sites for the retailers as well as a link to NEPSI, the free ePrescribing program whereby any physician can enroll and begin using the FREE service. BD
Those pricing pressures forced down dollar sales of generic drugs in the U.S. by 2.7 percent in the year ending in September, even though the number of generic prescriptions filled actually increased by 5.4 percent over the year before, IMS reported Wednesday. "We're seeing the combination of pressure from large retailers to make generics available at ever-lower prices for their customers" and the intensified competition among generic drugmakers leading them to cut prices, said Murray Aitken, senior vice president of the Healthcare Insight unit at IMS.
The report noted U.S. generic sales dipped from $34 billion in 2007 to $33 billion in the year ending in September, when generic drugs accounted for nearly 64 percent of all prescriptions filled.
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