Generics increase sales – and lose sales share

15.01.2010 10:13

Pro generics market data service

Although more than ever generics are being prescribed by doctors and dispensed in pharmacies, the high-quality but inexpensive follow-up products of patent-free drugs have once again lost sales shares in the statutory health insurance (GKV) drug market. From January to November 2009, 62 percent of all medicines dispensed to those with statutory health insurance on a doctor's prescription were generics. This corresponds to an increase of 2 percentage points compared to the same period last year. In the segment of patent-free active ingredients (generic market), the so-called generic quota was as high as 81 percent (from January to November 2008 it was 78 percent).

Nevertheless, as a result of ongoing price competition, the value share of generics in drug expenditure based on the pharmacy sales price fell by one percentage point to 28 percent. If one takes the selling price of the pharmaceutical companies as a basis (excluding trade markups and VAT), the health insurance companies only had to spend 21 percent of their expenses on generics. All of these figures are based on the official list prices, which, however, no longer correctly reflect the actual pharmaceutical expenditure by statutory health insurance companies. In fact, the GKV spent significantly less on generics. Because of the drug discount agreements, the health insurance companies receive further price discounts from the companies, the exact amount of which remains their secret, but which dramatically reduces the manufacturers' revenues in addition to the price competition.